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Indian-Origin Student Charged With Launching Cyber-Attacks On Chat Site In US

If convicted, Sharma faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, three years of supervised release, and/or a fine.
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WASHINGTON -- A 26-year-old Indian-origin computer science student has been charged with initiating a number of cyber-attacks on a chat site in the US.

Sean Krishanmakoto Sharma has been indicted for transmitting a programme, information, code, or command causing damage to a protected computer, United States Attorney Brian J Stretch and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge John F Bennett said.

The indictment accuses the graduate student of initiating a number of attacks on a local provider of online chat services.

According to the indictment, between 6 November, 2014 and 20 January, 2015, Sharma, used a distributed denial of service (DDoS) tool to compromise the computers of a San Francisco-based company that provides online chat services to third party web sites.

Sharma was arrested 9 December. He was released on a USD 100,000 bond, US Attorney's Office, Northern District of California said in a statement.

If convicted, Sharma faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, three years of supervised release, and/or a fine.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.