Another of the defendants, Michael Paul Nebel, allegedly logged onto a specific Comcast e-mail account that allowed him to communicate with Comcast’s DNS registrar. Lewis was then able to sign onto Comcast’s account at the registrar and point the Comcast.net Web site to the page he and the others made, according to the filing.

During the attack, one of the defendants, Lewis, called a Comcast employee at his home and asked if the company’s domains were working properly, the indictment alleges.

Comcast claims that it lost US$128,578 due to the attacks.

James Robert Black Jr. is the third defendant named in the indictment. The men are charged with one count each of conspiracy to intentionally damage a protected computer system. The charges were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday.

If convicted they each face a five-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.