WICHITA – A Larned man was sentenced Monday to 27 months in federal prison for causing a series of denial of service attacks on a Kansas internet service provider, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said.

In April, a jury convicted Michael D. Golightley, 35, Larned, on seven counts of damaging a protected computer and one count of threatening to damage a protected computer.

During trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Golightley contacted an entity called DDosCity to arrange for a series of attacks on Nex-Tech’s computers.

Nex-Tech is an internet service provider with offices in Hays, Lenora, Beloit, Concordia, Courtland, Dodge City, Downs, Great Bend, Hill City, Hoxie, McPherson, Norton, Osborne, Phillipsburg, Plainville, Quinter, Russell, Salina, Smith Center, Stockton and WaKeeney. Its commercial customers include the Pawnee County courthouse and the Jordan Memorial Library in Larned.

Prosecutors presented evidence that on March 30 and 31, 2017, Nex-Tech was hit by three denial of service attacks that overloaded the company’s servers. 

Before the attacks, Golightley sent Nex-Tech two threats. He was angry about the company removing an ad he placed on Nex-Tech Classifieds for a PlayStation 3 game that been “jail broken,” or modified to bypass a system security check. Golightley placed the ad a second time and sent Nex-Tech a warning that he would “violate this site by bringing it offline” if the ad were removed again. He added: “If u make me upset, I will retaliate – your choice.”

McAllister commended the FBI, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Metzger and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan McCarty for their work on the case.