Online gangs ‘groomed’ my son to be a hacker
George Duke-Cohan’s parents fear extradition to the US to serve 65 year sentence could prove fatal
WHEN 16-year-old George DukeCohan told his mother he had beaten his teacher in a coding competition, she could finally see a bright future for her autistic son. For years she had watched him struggle academically and socially – at one point being bullied so badly he became the school librarian to hide from his tormentors.
But when he was online, George transformed from a gauche schoolboy into a precocious talent capable of doing things few adults can grasp.
Four years later, George, now 20, is not starting his computing career but facing extradition to the US to serve 65 years in jail.
Last year, George was unmasked as the hacker behind a campaign of bomb threats that caused 400 schools to be evacuated and a plane to be grounded in San Francisco. He admitted the charges in the UK and is currently serving three years in a young offenders’ institution. Earlier this year the FBI charged him and another member of his “Apophis Squad” hacking gang with a total of 20 counts, raising fears he could be extradited to America.
In their first interview George’s parents today warn other families that their children risk being “groomed” by hackers looking for talent to carry out criminal acts on their behalf on online video games like Minecraft.
His mother, Mireya Duke-Cohan, 49, and George’s stepfather, Gary, told The Sunday Telegraph they did everything they could to keep their son safe online. But they say it was not enough to stop him from being manipulated and pressured into becoming the “fall guy” for a cat-andmouse game with the police and FBI.
Mrs Duke-Cohan is also calling on the Government to bring “harsher penalties” against games companies that fail to protect young users.
“It is a warning to parents out there,” said Mrs Duke-Cohan. “While you think you are doing your best, unless you are playing the game with them you really don’t know.
“It is so easy for kids to be dragged in and before you know it you’re not in the game doing these things, it is in the outside world. I think these games are lethal.”
Mrs Duke-Cohan became concerned about George when he had not started speaking until he was two and preferred to play by himself. She had him assessed for autism, but a paperwork problem meant the condition was never properly recognised in his childhood.
George’s parents were delighted when he began to excel in IT at school and bought him a laptop for his 16th birthday. Before then Mrs Duke-Cohan had refused to allow George to have an Xbox as the games console can be connected to the internet.
Alongside learning computer code, George also started playing Minecraft, a game in which players hunt for online resources to construct virtual buildings and structures. The DukeCohans say George met the hackers who would form the Apophis Squad on the game, which is rated suitable for children aged seven and over.
George later told them that members of the squad ran tasks with in-game rewards in Minecraft that covertly assessed the ability of kids as young as eight. He said they targeted youngsters who were “loners” and bullied in the real world, so were looking for friendships online. Mr Duke-Cohan said: “It is grooming, rewarding and training without knowing you are being trained.”
Microsoft, which owns Minecraft, declined to comment for this article.
It was after George started an IT course at West Herts College in Watford that his parents noticed his attitude change and he started to become very stressed when he was separated from his computer.
Then in October 2017 George launched a cyber attack on his college, before calling in a bomb threat that led to 2,500 people being evacuated in January 2018.
George owned up to both attacks and was expelled. By this time Mrs Duke-Cohan said George was falling under the influence of other hackers.
From then on his behaviour escalated and in
March he sent over 1,700 emails to schools, colleges and nurseries threatening to set off bombs unless money was paid, leading to panic and evacuations. After being arrested and released, George sent another round of threats to schools in the UK and US in April, which led to him being arrested and bailed a second time.
In this period the Duke-Cohans took all of George’s computers away from him and eventually decided one of them had to be with him at all times so they could account for everything he did.
Over the next few months they said George’s mood and attitude improved as he was cut off from the internet and underwent counselling.
Things had progressed to a point by that August that Mr and Mrs DukeCohan decided, after what had been an increasingly traumatic year, that they would go on holiday. Mrs Duke-Cohan suffers from an autoimmune condition, Sjögren’s syndrome, and the stress had taken its toll on her health.
George, who doesn’t like new social situations, asked to be left behind to look after the dogs. His parents agreed as they were confident he had no access to computers.
However, while they were away George was called by one of the “clients” of Apophis and sent £300 to buy a new laptop to get back online. In the next few days he and another member of the squad called San Francisco Airport, telling the operator that he was a father whose daughter was on a United Airlines Flight from Heathrow that had been hijacked.
The airport authorities took the threat seriously, and Flight UAL 949 was grounded, while launching a full-scale security service operation before it was established it was a hoax.
George was arrested a third time and remanded into custody, after which he told Mrs Duke-Cohan he had been acting out of fear of his fellow hackers.
She said: “I said to him ‘why on earth did you do it’ as I didn’t think he would do something so stupid.
“He said ‘it’s quite simple, if I didn’t do it then our family would have been attacked online and I would have been excommunicated from the group. There would have been a lot of trouble for all of us’.
“He was getting to that stage [of wanting to leave the group] at that point. He said it was a relief to tell the truth.”
Mrs Duke-Cohan told George he had to admit to what he had d done, despite knowing it would mean me watching her son go to jail.
“I am proud of the fact that th he came clean,” said Mrs Duke-Cohan. Duke “Prison is doing him good as a he has to grow up.”
In February the DukeDuke-Cohans were alerted that George G had been named on an a indictment in the th US along with ano another alleged Apophis Apop member.
The famil family fear the US will request req George is extradited e before his sentence ends. Aske Asked what she think thinks would happen to George, Mrs Duke Duke-Cohan’s response is blunt: “He won’t get g there. He won’t make m it.”
‘It is grooming, rewarding and training without knowing you are being trained’