On Friday, the FBI arrested 32-year-old Arthur Dam on charges of masterminding a series of DDoS attacks that targeted an opponent of former congresswoman Katie Hill. Dam was arrested over suspicion of cyber attacking the websites of Hill’s rival in April and May of 2018, causing the website to be shut down for approximately 21 hours and resulting in financial losses of $5,000. Hill’s opponent believes that her loss in the June 2018 Democratic primary for California’s 25th district was partially because of Dam’s attacks and politically-motivated DDoS campaign.
The FBI conducted an investigation that determined the cyberattacks originated from a single Amazon Web Services (AWS) account that was traced back to Dam. Dam’s wife also worked for one of Hill’s rivals. An investigation into the AWS account’s geolocation revealed that the attacks were launched from both Dam’s residence and from his workplace. Although there was no evidence uncovered in the investigations that linked Hill personally to the cyberattacks, Dam provided free cybersecurity consulting services to Hill’s campaign in 2018.
Read More: FBI Arrests Man on Political Cyber-attack Charges
