An Arizona teenage boy is now in custody after he was arrested on Wednesday, Oct. 23, for hacking the system of 911 emergency calls of Arizona and other states. Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai, 18, said he just wanted to be recognized in the hacking and programming community that is why he did it.
It started when Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai, 18, generated a JavaScript code and shared the link on Twitter. The link tweeted by Meetkumar, when click, makes iPhone users automatically and continually dial 911.
The teen's tweeted link was clicked nearly 2,000 times, as of authorities, causing more than 100 "fake calls" to the emergency center in Arizona and other states in just few minutes. The fake calls have almost shut down the emergency system in Arizona. Fake calls were reported directed to 911 emergency centers in Texas and California too.
Police investigators tracked down the fake calls and found out that they started from a shared link on Twitter. They identified the owner of the sharer of the link as "Meet Desai". With the teenager's domain, the authorities were able to locate him.
On Wednesday, the teenager was located and taken by the police for some questionings. The Maricopa County's Sheriff Police released a press release about their interrogation with Desai.
As of a press release, the teenager stated that he might have accidentally pushed the harmful version of the bug out on the Twitter link rather than a lesser annoying bug which only caused pop-ups, dialing to make users of iPhones reboot and freeze up. Later on, Desai admitted that he made the malicious bugs and viruses to be recognized in the hacking and programming community as somebody who was very skillful.
The teenager was charged with three counts of computer tampering, the BBC has learned. "Hacking devices or networks without the explicit permission and cooperation of their owners is dangerous and can result in significant legal penalties," BBC quoted Dad Goodin, a Security Editor at Ars Technica, as saying.
