'Anonymous' hacker spared jail

February 02, 2013

A British teen found guilty of attacking PayPal and other large companies as part of an Anonymous group cyber-campaign would have been sent to jail were it not for his age and troubled personality, a judge has said. Jake Birchall, 16 years old at the time of the offenses and now 18, previously admitted to having taken part in a series of high-profile DDoS attacks on a range of companies between August 2010 and January 2011, the time of his arrest. The judge at Southwark Crown Court in London, Peter Testar, sentenced Birchall to an 18-month youth rehabilitation order and 60 hours of unpaid community work, describing the youth on the basis of psychiatric pre-sentencing reports as "profoundly isolated." "I have to sentence you with the fact that you were under 18 when convicted in mind," explained Judge Testar. "There's a statement of special needs in your case. You have met the diagnosed criteria for certain conditions," he added, without elaborating further. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://news.techworld.com/security/3424052/anonymous-hacker-too-young-troubled-go-jail-judge-says/