Michael Calce, aka Mafiaboy, was the target of an RCMP/FBI manhunt following a massive directed denial of service attack that brought down the Web sites of major companies such as CNN, Amazon, Dell and Yahoo in 2000. Calce was fascinated by AOL and the online interaction it offered him with people around the world. He first got onto the Web at age nine, and was paranoid he’d lose access to this new world he’d discovered. When his IRC group disbanded after its leader disappeared Calce became a self-described “mercenary” in an ongoing IRC war.
Source: https://thehackernews.com/2010/12/why-mafiaboy-wont-be-your-facebook.html