PHOENIX — Operators of TeenGayDick.com likely received a gargantuan amount of traffic for several days in 2015 after an IT administrator attempted to blackmail a Phoenix-based corporation he worked for.
On Monday, the administrator, Tavis Tso of Tempe, Ariz., was sentenced to four years of federal probation after he pled guilty to holding the unnamed corporate website hostage and redirecting it to the gay porn site. He also was ordered to pay more than $9,000 in restitution.
While website hijacking is rare, Tso’s muddled actions are a cautionary tale for all companies that don’t have security protocols in place for access to registrar login credentials.
Working for the unnamed company for several years, Tso renewed the corporate website domain with GoDaddy and subsequently made changes to the company’s account login information. Later, Tso took control of the website and made changes that paralyzed the company’s internet operations.
“These changes prevented the company’s employees from using their email accounts and redirected the company’s homepage to a blank page,” Justice Department officials said in a statement yesterday. “Tso then offered to return everything to normal for $10,000.
“When the company refused to pay the requested amount, Tso redirected the company’s homepage to [TeenGayDick.com]. Visitors to the company’s website were redirected to the pornographic website for several days before the website was returned to normal.”
The company later complained to federal authorities in Arizona, who brought a criminal case against Tso in December 2016.
Tso was charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and wire fraud. Prosecutors did not seek prison time for him, and the CFAA count was dropped under the terms of the plea deal.
Operators of TeenGayDick.com with the Filthy Network did not respond for XBIZ comment by post time.
