A computer hacker who played a part in sophisticated cyber attacks on major global institutions has been sentenced to two year’s detention.
Jake Davis (20), who moved to Spalding from the Shetlands after he was bailed to his mum’s address in Beech Avenue during the court process, was among four members of a group of British hackers jailed for masterminding cyber raids on the likes of the CIA, Sony and the FBI.
News International, the NHS and the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency were also victims of the gang of “hactivists” who called themselves Lulzsec.
During their reign of cyber terror they stole sensitive personal data, including emails, online passwords and credit card details belonging to millions of people.
They also carried out distributed denial of service attacks, using linked networks of up to one million computers to overpower and crash websites.
Their activities collectively cost their targets millions.
Davis and the other three admitted offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
Davis, who used the alias Topiary, was Lulzsec’s publicist. He was ordered to 24 months in a young offenders’ unit.
Sentencing them at Southwark Crown Court last Thursday, Judge Deborah Taylor said some of the taunting of their victims “makes chilling reading”, and what they considered to be a game had real consequences.
She said: “You cared nothing for the privacy of others but did everything you could through your computer activities to hide your own identities while seeking publicity.”