NJ teen jailed over Scientology DDoS

A New Jersey teenager convicted of participating in a denial of service attack against the Church of Scientology has been jailed for a year.

Dmitriy Guzner, 19, from Verona, was also ordered to spend two years on probation following his release and pay $37,500 in compensation at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. Guzner confessed last May to taking part in a January 2008 attack against Church of Scientology websites.

The teenager is one of only two people ever charged with taking part in attacks protesting against alleged online censorship by the Church of Scientology that left its main website inaccessible for around a day and continued for about two weeks.

A second man, Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, was indicted over the same denial of service attack last month.

The denial of service attacks against the Church, co-ordinated by the Anonymous group, were made as a protest against attempts by Scientologists to stop the online distribution of a controversial Tom Cruise video.

Guzner denies being a member of Anonymous, the loose online collective running an ongoing protest against the Church of Scientology under the banner Project Chanology. Early aspects of the Anonymous campaign including flooding Scientology web sites.

The group has since moved on towards running monthly protests outside Scientology offices. Some members wear V for Vendetta-style masks and dress as Guy Fawkes during these demos. ®