Raphael Gray, a Welsh teenager, said that he was on a mission to prove the dangers of shopping over the Internet. To demonstrate his point, in January 1999, Gray embarked on a four-week crack attack on e-commerce sites to see how many systems he could hack into.
During his month-long crusade, Gray managed to collect at least 23,000 credit card numbers, including one belonging to Bill Gates, which Gray said he used to send a shipment of the impotence-curing drug Viagra to Gates' home.
The teenager was commended in court for his whimsy in sending the drug to Gates.
"You demonstrated some sense of humor by sending Viagra to Bill Gates to mock him," said Judge Gareth Davies, at Gray's sentencing hearing in the Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in southern Wales.
After his sentencing Gray, 19, told reporters outside the courthouse that he would "do it all again, given the chance," but would act within the law next time.
According to psychiatric assessments ordered by the court, after the accident Gray had a difficult time relating to people and became obsessed with computers.
A Welsh teenager was found guilty of hacking into the email account of a Microsoft employee and sending Viagra pills to Bill Gates as a prank. The incident occurred in 2003 and the teenager was sentenced in 2005.
The hacker was sentenced to two years of probation and 250 hours of community service. The judge in the case stated that he wanted the sentence to be a "salutary lesson" for the teenager and to deter others from committing similar crimes.
No, there were no reports of any negative consequences for Bill Gates. It is likely that he was aware of the incident and took appropriate measures to protect his email account.
Yes, hacking into someone's email account and sending unauthorized messages is a serious crime. It is a violation of privacy and can result in legal consequences.
It is not clear if this specific incident led to any changes in cybersecurity measures for Microsoft. However, it is likely that the company regularly updates and strengthens its security protocols to protect against hacking attempts.