PHILADELPHIA—Michael Crockett, 29, of Kansas City, Missouri, was charged today by information with attempting to intentionally damage a computer, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger.

The information alleges that between September 24 and 26, 2012, Crocket knowingly caused the transmission of codes and commands to a computer hosting the city of Philadelphia’s website, www.phila.gov, in an attempt to shut down that website. This type of attack is known as and described as a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS). Crockett’s actions caused a loss to the city of more than $5,000.

If convicted the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Albert S. Glenn.