18-year-old arrested in cyberattack on Ariz. 911 system

A teenager has been arrested in connection with a cyberattack on the county's emergency call-in system. Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai, 18, was taken into custody after the Surprise (AZ) Police Department, northwest of Phoenix, notified the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office of more than 100 hang-up 911 calls within a few minutes late Oct 25.

Desai was booked into a Maricopa County jail on suspicion of three counts of computer tampering. Interference with critical infrastructure could have disrupted the 911 system in the Phoenix area and potentially other states. Investigators traced the calls and discovered they originated from a link posted to Twitter, according to the statement. The link was to a site named "Meet Desai" and its domain was hosted out of San Francisco. When the link was clicked, it continually called 911 and would not let the caller hang up.