Somerville Hacker Given 10+ Years In Hospital, Nonprofit Attacks

SOMERVILLE, MA – A Somerville man convicted of conducting disruptive computer attacks on Boston Children's Hospital and Wayside Youth and Family Support Network was sentenced in federal court Thursday.

Martin Gottesfeld, who identified himself as a member of the hacker collective Anonymous, was arrested in 2016 after being rescued during an escape attempt to Cuba, federal authorities said. The 32-year-old was convicted of conducting a distributed denial of service – or DDOS – attack against Wayside, a Framingham-based nonprofit that provides mental health counseling and family support services to children, young adults and families in Massachusetts, and Boston Children's Hospital in 2014.

The attack on Wayside crippled its network for more than a week, costing the residential treatment facility $18,000 in response and mitigation efforts. The attack on Boston Children's disrupted its network for at least two weeks, interrupting access to internet services used by the staff to treat patients and rendering computers in several other area hospitals useless for legitimate communication as well.

It cost Boston Children's Hospital more than $300,000 and nearly $300,000 in lost donations.

Gottesfeld demanded change in the hospital's handling of a teenage patient, who had been discharged months earlier and was the subject of a custody battle between her parents and the state, according to authorities.

At his sentencing Thursday, Gottesfeld expressed zero remorse for the attacks and said he regretted not helping the patient sooner, Boston 25's Kathryn Burcham reported. The judge blasted Gottesfeld as being "consumed by hubris" and "wanton insolence resulting from excessive pride."

He was sentenced to 121 months in jail and ordered to pay $442,000 to Children's and Wayside.

Previously: Somerville Hacker Convicted Of Attacks On Hospital, Nonprofit

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