A BORED teenager “broke the internet” in one of the most infamous hacking attacks of all time – turning him overnight into one of the world’s most wanted men.

Michael Calce was just 15 when he brought down the biggest sites on the web, became the target of an FBI manhunt, and landed himself in prison.

2

2

The teenager managed to temporarily topple some of the world’s largest websites, including Amazon, eBay and Yahoo!

Now 39-years-old, Michael told The Sun Online how since breaking the internet, he’s spent the rest of his life trying to protect it.

The former hacker turned cybersecurity chief warned the world is not ready for a new terrifying frontier in cyber-warfare, which “scares the living daylights” out of him.

The need for protection of online services is greater than ever, with so many critical services and systems dependent on the tech.

He warned that hackers now have the power to weaponize infrastructure against whole populations – something as simple as hacking into a water treatment centre could poison thousands.

“The shock factor of a missile hitting a power grid has an immediate effect,” Calce explains. “A hacker sitting behind a computer and shutting down the grid doesn’t have the same effect, but the reality is the same.”

These current threats, he says, are far more serious than his own “internet breaking” onslaught back in 2000.

Michael’s hack attack caused an estimated $1.2billion worth of damage and landed him in a youth prison for eight months.

But havoc-causing aside, he exposed just how weak and vulnerable those early years of the internet were.

In a little less than a few minutes, a talented kid playing around on his computer had sent America spiralling with the knowledge that a new frontier of warfare had arrived – cyberattacks. 

“Imagine you’re 15 years old, and the president of the United States is talking about you and saying that they’re looking for you,” he tells The Sun Online.

Michael, who went by the online alias of Mafiaboy, had become public enemy number one in North…