22-year-old Anonymous hacker arrested in United Kingdom
A 22-year-old man was charged with computer offenses by U.K. police investigating attacks on companies carried out by the hacking group Anonymous.
Peter David Gibson, a student from Hartlepool, England, was charged with a conspiracy to impair the operation of a computer or hinder access to a program or data, the Metropolitan Police in London said today in a statement. Gibson had been arrested along with five others by officers in connection with so-called denial of service attacks against several companies, the police said.
Anonymous is alleged to have targeted companies including EBay Inc., Sony Corp. (SNE) and Visa Inc. Denial-of-service attacks flood computer networks with requests for information until they shut down. Police declined to give out information on how to contact Gibson or his attorney.
