Akron Man Sentenced For Shutting Down City, Police Websites

AKRON, OH — An Akron man has been sentenced to prison for launching digital attacks that shut down the websites for the city of Akron and the Akron police department. James Robinson, 33, will spend nearly six years in prison for his actions.

Robinson previously pleaded guilty to damaging protected computers. U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko ordered Robinson to pay $668,684 in restitution.

Robinson used a denial of service (DDoS) attack to shutter the websites on August 1, 2017, according to court documents. The attacks overwhelmed the websites with network traffic and blocked people from accessing the sites.

The same day of the attacks a Tweet from the account "AkronPhoenix420" took credit for shutting down the websites. The Tweet included a YouTube video and a screenshot showing the city's website was inaccessible. The Tweet included the hashtags #Anonymous and #TangoDown.

The YouTube video showed a static image of a person wearing a Guy Fawkes mask while saying, "It's time we teach the law a lesson," "Akron police department abuses the law," and "this week the city of Akron experienced system failures on multiple domains including their emergency TCP ports."

Investigators were able to trace the DDoS attacks to James Robinson, court documents said, and Robinson's phone was linked to the Twitter account "AkronPhoenix420."

Law enforcement used a warrant to search Robinson's Akron home in May 2018. Agents found a Guy Fawkes mask and a cell phone with a cracked screen, similar to a phone seen in a video shared by the "AkronPhoenix420" account. Robinson later said he was responsible for the web attacks, and took credit for similar attacks against the Department of Defense and other groups, court documents said.

According to court documents, the "AkronPhoenix420" account took credit for several DDoS attacks in 2018, including attacks against the Ohio Department of Public Safety, the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Information Security Agency, the Department of Defense, the Department of Treasury and others

Robinson was investigated by the FBI, Defense Criminal Investigative Services, Akron police, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Treasury.