Santa Cruz ‘homeless hacker’ extradited from Mexico on decade-old case – Santa Cruz Sentinel
Santa Cruz ‘homeless hacker’ extradited from Mexico on decade-old case
Christopher Doyon arrested June 11 in decade-old case
By JESSICA A. YORK | [email protected] | Santa Cruz Sentinel
PUBLISHED: June 14, 2021 at 5:43 p.m. | UPDATED: June 15, 2021 at 2:47 p.m.
SAN JOSE — Former Santa Cruz homeless activist “Commander X” has been deported from Mexico to face more than decade-old allegations of maliciously hacking into the county’s computer system.
Hacker Christopher Doyon at the Santa Cruz County Superior Courthouse in 2010. (Bill Lovejoy — Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
Christopher Doyon, 56, appeared Monday before Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to face indictment for his failure to appear in federal court in 2012. He is scheduled to appear next Tuesday for arraignment and identification of counsel.
Doyon participated in and allegedly helped organize Operation Peace Camp 2010, a two-month-long protest during which more than 50 people slept outside the Santa Cruz County District Courthouse in protest of the city’s homeless camping law. Doyon was reportedly working on behalf of the Massachusetts-based Peoples Liberation Front, a self-described organization of “cyber-warriors” who work on behalf of the downtrodden, and affiliated with Anonymous, an international collective of hackers.
Operation Peace Camp 2010, which began in July of 2010 on the courthouse steps, ended when law enforcement broke up the protest Oct. 2 in front of Santa Cruz City Hall, where the protest had relocated. Doyon was one of five protesters arrested for sleeping in public related to the protest; a warrant was issued for his arrest when he did not show up for a Santa Cruz court date.
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Then, in December 2010, Doyon allegedly hacked into Santa Cruz County computers as retribution for the protest’s breakup, conducting in a “Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against the county’s servers and caused its website to go offline. Such an attack aims to render computers unavailable to users by saturating the target computers or networks with external communication requests, thereby denying service to legitimate users, according to court documents.
Doyon was indicted on federal charges in September 2011 after being arrested in Mountain View for conspiracy to cause intentional damage to a protected computer, causing intentional damage to a protected computer, and aiding and abetting. He was released on bail and did not show up to his federal court hearing in February 2012, reportedly fleeing to Canada and leaving defense attorney Ed Frey on the hook for his $35,000 bail bond. Frey himself was among those arrested during the 2010 protest, later being convicted of misdemeanor illegal lodging and sentenced to six months in jail.
Doyon was arrested June 11 by Mexican immigration authorities and deported to the United States, where he was arrested by FBI agents the next day.
The maximum penalty for failure to appear after pre-trial release is two years’ imprisonment, $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. The maximum penalty for conspiracy to cause intentional damage to a protected computer is five years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution if appropriate. The maximum penalty for causing intentional damage to a protected computer and aiding and abetting is 10 years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution if appropriate.
Christopher Doyon arrested June 11 in decade-old case
By JESSICA A. YORK | [email protected] | Santa Cruz Sentinel
PUBLISHED: June 14, 2021 at 5:43 p.m. | UPDATED: June 15, 2021 at 2:47 p.m.
SAN JOSE — Former Santa Cruz homeless activist “Commander X” has been deported from Mexico to face more than decade-old allegations of maliciously hacking into the county’s computer system.
Hacker Christopher Doyon at the Santa Cruz County Superior Courthouse in 2010. (Bill Lovejoy — Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
Christopher Doyon, 56, appeared Monday before Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to face indictment for his failure to appear in federal court in 2012. He is scheduled to appear next Tuesday for arraignment and identification of counsel.
Doyon participated in and allegedly helped organize Operation Peace Camp 2010, a two-month-long protest during which more than 50 people slept outside the Santa Cruz County District Courthouse in protest of the city’s homeless camping law. Doyon was reportedly working on behalf of the Massachusetts-based Peoples Liberation Front, a self-described organization of “cyber-warriors” who work on behalf of the downtrodden, and affiliated with Anonymous, an international collective of hackers.
Operation Peace Camp 2010, which began in July of 2010 on the courthouse steps, ended when law enforcement broke up the protest Oct. 2 in front of Santa Cruz City Hall, where the protest had relocated. Doyon was one of five protesters arrested for sleeping in public related to the protest; a warrant was issued for his arrest when he did not show up for a Santa Cruz court date.
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Then, in December 2010, Doyon allegedly hacked into Santa Cruz County computers as retribution for the protest’s breakup, conducting in a “Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against the county’s servers and caused its website to go offline. Such an attack aims to render computers unavailable to users by saturating the target computers or networks with external communication requests, thereby denying service to legitimate users, according to court documents.
Doyon was indicted on federal charges in September 2011 after being arrested in Mountain View for conspiracy to cause intentional damage to a protected computer, causing intentional damage to a protected computer, and aiding and abetting. He was released on bail and did not show up to his federal court hearing in February 2012, reportedly fleeing to Canada and leaving defense attorney Ed Frey on the hook for his $35,000 bail bond. Frey himself was among those arrested during the 2010 protest, later being convicted of misdemeanor illegal lodging and sentenced to six months in jail.
Doyon was arrested June 11 by Mexican immigration authorities and deported to the United States, where he was arrested by FBI agents the next day.
The maximum penalty for failure to appear after pre-trial release is two years’ imprisonment, $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. The maximum penalty for conspiracy to cause intentional damage to a protected computer is five years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution if appropriate. The maximum penalty for causing intentional damage to a protected computer and aiding and abetting is 10 years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution if appropriate.
