Court Finds Anonymous PayPal Attacker Guilty

[Karloff]

Court Finds Anonymous PayPal Attacker Guilty

Student hacker Christopher Weatherhead has been warned he may face jail time.

Christopher Weatherhead, one of four Anonymous conspirators to have hacked PayPal, costing the payments company £3.5 million ($5.5 million) [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120766-Court-Told-Wikileaks-Backlash-Cost-PayPal-3-5-Million], has been found guilty of the charges of conspiracy to impair the operation of computers. Sentencing will take place at a later date.

Weatherhead, a 22 year old student, was the only one of the conspirators to contest the charges. Throughout the trial he tried to portray himself as a communications manager and chatroom creator, not one of the front line attackers. When asked whether he had observed attacks while they were happening, Weatherhead responded in the affirmative.

"I was quite interested," Weatherhead said. "I did not believe that what was being discussed was actually possible."

Judge Peter Testar warned Weatherhead that the student could face jail time for his part in the PayPal hack. "I want to have as much information as possible before deciding what should happen in the case of these four men," said Judge Testar. "I think these are serious offences to my mind, and I hope the defendant understands that."

Weatherhead has been electronically tagged and is subject to curfew at his parents' home, as he awaits sentence.

Source: Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/dec/06/student-convicted-anonymous-cyber-attacks]


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[Gilhelmi]

STUPID JACKA**, The getaway driver is just as guilty as the bank-robbers (who just murdered someone). It is the reason the police can flip the driver, the police go "Tell us everything about the shooter, and we will not charge you with murder". Yes, If someone dies (even from a heart-attack) during the commission of a crime, all the criminals there will be charge with murder.

The driver is still guilty of bank robbery. The "communications manager" is still guilty of hacking.

TAKE THE DEAL!!!

 

[AldUK]

I'm actually in favour of sentencing for this. There needs to be a message sent to these kids that what they're doing isn't victim-less without consequence.

£3.5 million is a lot of money, the punishment should reflect that. Though I do fear our courts are still a little ignorant of tech crimes and they'll either massively overreact and he'll get a life sentence or they'll underact and he'll get away with a community service order.

 

[Basement Cat]

Weatherhead has been electronically tagged and is subject to curfew at his parents' home, as he awaits sentence.

This line SO reminds me of that scene in the 1995/1996 movie "Hackers" when 2 FBI agents are sitting in a car outside an apartment center and one gives a verbal report: "Subject is still grounded--by his mother!

 

[Jorec]

Being forced into curfew at his parent's house?

How embarrassing.

 

[MiskWisk]

Good to know this case has managed to continue to help me have absolutely no pity to any and all lawbreakers.

Captcha: Good afternoon
Shame it's evening here.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

This is why I can't take anyone who defends hacktivists seriously, like when people were defending the hackers when they took out the PSN, or any time hacktivists were stealing credit card info in order to sell them. Or those who defend the asinine logic behind the attack on Kim Dotcom recently. They pull crap like this and try to hide behind the "I'M FROM ANONYMOUS" flag thinking that the internet is a community that will automatically protect them. And it fails most of the time.

Saying you're party to Anonymous doesn't mean anything anymore as its more than likely people using the name in the same manner that Ghost in the Shell showed people the laughing man.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Saying you're party to Anonymous doesn't mean anything anymore as its more than likely people using the name in the same manner that Ghost in the Shell showed people the laughing man.

Except the laughing Man part worked in the series for exposing manipulative higher ups messing around with society.

Anon are just without a clue most of the time and resort to petty small time hacks and often spreading the wrong words at times.

But one day just one day when the world is locked down and bleak as hell I can't wait for people who hated hackers to one day wish they were back and then hypocrisy comes full circle once more.

OT: While I don't know much about this guy to form a care if he did the crime he's going to have to pay the crime with jail time.

 

[maninahat]

Not so anonymous then? Silly buggers will get what's coming to them.

 

[LawyerScumGhost]

So Wall Street and big banks can rip people off for god knows how much, demand trillions in bail outs, get the trillions from us, crash the entire world economy and face NO justice. Not one big name involved in the housing/derivatives scam has spent 1 day in jail. John Corzine looted 1 billion in client funds from MF Global and is walking around scot-free. Mess with Pay Pal, and the hammer comes down. I guess "justice" is only for the little people.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Saying you're party to Anonymous doesn't mean anything anymore as its more than likely people using the name in the same manner that Ghost in the Shell showed people the laughing man.

Except the laughing Man part worked in the series for exposing manipulative higher ups messing around with society.

Anon are just without a clue most of the time and resort to petty small time hacks and often spreading the wrong words at times.

That assumes that people aren't just using the name Anonymous while they start crimes as a means to justify their crimes in some pathetic way. That assumes that who says their part of Anonymous aren't just using the name while they rob a bank.

 

[NightHawk21]

snip

Just to clarify the PSN hack wasn't Anonoymous but just people after credit card info.

Also what happened to Kim Dotcom is actually really fucked up and he should be getting away scott free and pushing for compensation.

 

[Ravinoff]

So Wall Street and big banks can rip people off for god knows how much, demand trillions in bail outs, get the trillions from us, crash the entire world economy and face NO justice. Not one big name involved in the housing/derivatives scam has spent 1 day in jail. John Corzine looted 1 billion in client funds from MF Global and is walking around scot-free. Mess with Pay Pal, and the hammer comes down. I guess "justice" is only for the little people.

Yep. Fuck it, loot the global economy for all you can take, but if you stop people from buying crap on ebay, you go to prison. Disgusting.

 

[Atmos Duality]

He committed a crime, and he was punished.
Astonishing. I am stunned at this revelation.

The only thing that would have been truly controversial is if he walked.

That assumes that people aren't just using the name Anonymous while they start crimes as a means to justify their crimes in some pathetic way.

You just hit upon the infinite irony of Anonymous.
"We are Legion"...except when they aren't. Because "Legion" in context assumes they have common goals and agendas.
Instead, it's a revolving door of "Hacktivist", "Identity/Electronic Fraud", and "For the lulz", changing at the whim.

Though I suppose "We are hackers who loosely cooperate at random intervals, try to spook gullible idiots with our Youtube Videos read by Microsoft Sam/Sally, and routinely contradict our message every other month." isn't as catchy as "We are Legion."

 

[CJ1145]

Ha, trapped in his parent's house. Good, he's being treated exactly like this type of person should: a spoiled, stupid little child.

 

[Erttheking]

I find it hard to sympathize with these people. If you want to protest what people in power are doing, you can do it without breaking the law and causing people to lose millions.

 

[Moosejaw]

I guess that whole 'Look Forward, Not Backward' schtick of Obama's only applies to the folks who crashed the economy.

 

[Strazdas]

£3.5 million is a lot of money, the punishment should reflect that. Though I do fear our courts are still a little ignorant of tech crimes and they'll either massively overreact and he'll get a life sentence or they'll underact and he'll get away with a community service order.

Except that, you know, those 3.5 millions they claim in damage consist of "equipment we had to buy so we would not be hacked again" and similar stuff. there was no "Real" damages. they just were forced to upgrade thier security, you know, something they should be doing by default since they handle large sums of money. but apparently making a company to work on their security is a crime now and if you expose a problem in thier design you have to pay for the fix, because apparently according to papypal the problem magically didnt exist before.
what this case boils down to is paypal demanding that peopel who refuse to sue their service pay for their service upgrades. and wins the case. yay justice system.