Gene Simmons Hacker Suspect Kevin George Poe Arrested (Bummer): FBI Says He's a Member of 'Anonymous'

By Dennis Romero Tue., Dec. 13 2011 at 12:22 PM

Gene Simmons is such a grand a-hole that we almost (almost?) relished his online take-down at the hands of the hacker group Anonymous.

You see, the L.A.-based rocker and reality show "star" uttered a death-to-file sharers proclamation ("Take their homes, their cars," he said) last year, and, in response, hackers took down his website.

(Lulz, right?).

Well the law has caught up with one of the alleged online pranksters, unfortunately:

The FBI today announced the arrest of 24-year-old Kevin George Poe in connection with the "denial of service attack" on genesimmons.com.

FBI agents got him at his Manchester, Connecticut home this morning, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in L.A.

His screen name is said to be spydr101.

He was booked and released in lieu of $10,000 bond. A U.S. District Court judge ordered him to appear in L.A. federal court on a yet-to-be-determined date.

Poe was indicted by a federal grand jury in L.A., which charged him with conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. The jury alleged that he's part of Anonymous.

According to the U.S. Attorney:

During a five-day period in October 2010, Poe and others linked to Anonymous allegedly conducted a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against Simmons' computer systems, sending tens of thousands of electronic requests designed to overload the computer server and render the website useless. According to the indictment, Poe used a favorite software tool of the Anonymous collective - a Low Orbit Ion Cannon, which is a computer program that is used to send extremely large numbers of "packets" or requests over a network in an attempt to overwhelm a target computer.

If convicted on the grand jury charges Poe would face a max of 15 years behind bars.

Bummer. Looks like Poe, if guilty, will no longer sing: I want to rock and roll all day, and deny your service every night.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

Anonymous, FBI, Gene Simmons, hackers, Kevin George Poe, U.S. Attorney's Office

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mjb_

What ended up happening with this? He was scheduled to appear Feb. 17 in US District Court, Central District of California. 23904871702845 articles about his initial arrest are on the web, and nothing, absolutely nothing in the way of followup. Did he go to prison, strike a plea deal, or what?

Dogredford

Very hard to prove who really hit the key. Don't think it will go any where. Maybe he should work for FBI. Heck maybe they should make a movie out of the whole thing. I heard they all work for the FBI anyways.

Guest

Both Anonymous and Gene are right.

Gene created his music and deserves to get paid to what he is entitled to. People are basically stealing money from his pocket which is wrong. Only thing he did wrong was post messages taunting Anonymous to retaliate, which they did.

Anonymous want the freedom of information to have no bounds which in theory is great and to stick up for the little guy instead of these rich fat cats lining their pockets with more then they need.

I don't believe anyone's wrong in these situations just depends on which side of the fence you sit.

iamwired

Dennis, I'm trying to figure out why you are so pro hacker? Would it be ok if I copied your article, and pasted it on my web site and put me name on it? No???Then why is Gene an "a-hole" for wanting to protect his work? far as I'm concerened, one down, many to go. Great work Gene. Nice Honeypot.... lulz!!!I'll bet his page won't be hit again anytime soon..

Ryan

15 years?! For a DDoS?! That's insane, this guy is in CT. Among things that carry a lesser sentence are: Assault of a pregnant woman, sexual assault, kidnapping, child pornography, etc.

see: http://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/rpt...

Seems a bit harsh, Kevin Poe will probably do time for this while Gene Simmons didn't even get a slap on the wrist after he was arrested for child porn. Must be nice to be a rich douche who can buy his way in and out of everything. F**k Gene Simmons.

Whether you think he is an a-hole or not is beside the point. Simmons expressed his opinion, as a musician and a copyright holder. Anonymous, or a "representative" of Anonymous, punished him for this by taking down his site. The implication is that if you oppose file sharing, they will come after you. This kind of entitlement will cripple musicians and the culture.

jillkennedy

I think Gene Simmons needs to explain what the heck this is...http://mankabros.com/blogs/onm...

Would you trust your life insurance with these guys?

woodymcbreairty

I agree that simmons is an asshole. A really repulsive character in so many ways I can't count 'em.

Tim

You've GOT to be kidding me. You're making it sound like it's such a TERRIBLE thing that this pimple-faced punk was busted. Like everyone should be able to do what they want on the internet. You just don't get it, do ya? What you are missing is that beCAUSE of morons like this guy, govt's and regulators are forced to implement stricter rules on the internet. It's like shooting yourself in the foot! If these snotty nosed punks would just leave it alone then cases like this wouldn't make it to court, and a precedent wouldn't be set. They think they are smart but they are, with their actions, destroying the freedom of the Internet.

Ryan

Baseless bulls**t, you don't know what this guy looks like, generally a 24 year old man isn't a "pimple faced punk." Government places restrictions on the internet because of fraud, terrorism and child porn, not DDoSing some jerkoff's website. Get a clue

iamwired

I've seen 30 year old pimple faced punks... Immaturity knows no age.

Great work Gene, keep it up.