GIBSON:FOUR ACCUSED OF ANONYMOUS GROUP CYBER ATTACKS GRANTED BAIL
Four alleged computer hackers appeared in court today (Weds) accused of taking part in cyber-attacks as part of the Anonymous group.
Peter Gibson, 22, Ashley Rhodes 26, Christopher Weatherhead, 20, and a 17-year-old are said to have brought down sites belonging to giant companies like Mastercard, Amazon and Paypal.
The four appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged with conspiracy to commit an unauthorised act in relation to a computer.
During a short hearing they spoke only to confirm their names and did not enter a plea.
District judge Caroline Tubbs granted them bail on the condition they do not use Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, and do not use their alleged Anonymous nicknames when using the internet.
Gibson and Rhode are known as ‘Peter’ and ‘NikonElite’, while Weatherhead goes by the handle ‘Nerdo’.
She rejected an application by prosecutor Russell Tyler to impose a ban on all ‘real-time internet activity’, which would have included Twitter and Skype.
‘It my view it would not be enforceable,’ she said.
The four were arrested in January as part of a police investigation into a string of high-profile attacks by the international collective on companies including Amazon, Bank of America, Mastercard and Paypal.
The firms were allegedly targeted because they been involved in a crackdown on piracy or had stopped forwarding payments to WikiLeaks.
Anonymous members use a piece of software called LOIC – or Low Orbit Ian Cannon – to create so-called ‘distributed denial of service’ attacks and bring down the sites under the weight of heavy internet
traffic.
Gibson, of (113) Castleton Road, Hartlepool, Rhodes, of (Flat 9, 95) Bolton Crescent, Camberwell, se London, Weatherhead, of (113) Holly Road, Northampton, and the 17-year-old, from Chester, will next
appear at Southwark Crown Court on November 18 for a plea and directions hearing.
ends
