Mafiaboy goes down

The Canadian hacker known as Mafiaboy has been sentenced to eight months in a youth detention centre.

Judge Gilles Ouellet pronounced sentence on the 17-year-old, who succeeded in bringing down a number of sites, including Buy.com, eBay and Yahoo last year.

As reported in US wires, Ouellett told the court: "This was an attack that weakened a whole electronic communication system."

The judge also gave Mafiaboy, whose real name cannot be revealed under Canadian law, a $160 fine and a further year's probation.

The youth's defence lawyer branded the sentence as excessive, even though his client faced up to two years in jail and vowed to launch an appeal.