Christopher Weatherhead

Last updated

Christopher Weatherhead
Nationality British
Other namesNerdo
Known for Privacy International, Operation Payback

Christopher Weatherhead, also known by his alias Nerdo, is an activist, hacker and technologist. Weatherhead was jailed for his involvement in several cyberattacks by hacker collective Anonymous. [1]

Contents

Anonymous

Weatherhead has been an active leader for Anonymous, a loose-knit group of "hacktivists". It was reported that Weatherhead had seniority within the group. [1]

Operation Payback

Weatherhead played a significant role in Operation Payback, a series of cyberattacks conducted by Anonymous against various organizations because the hackers "did not agree with their views." [2] [3] In particular, Weatherhead was known for his work on Operation Avenge Assange, which was part of Operation Payback as a whole. Operation Avenge Assange focused on disrupting PayPal and other payment sites that despite transferring funds indiscriminately for other organisations, including neonazi organisations, would not process transfers to the Wau Holland Foundation, which raises funds for WikiLeaks, after attention shifted from companies involved in digital rights. [4] [5] Weatherhead reportedly was instrumental in bringing down PayPal for 10 days, resulting in a reported £3.5million in losses for the company. [4]

In January 2013, Weatherhead was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in the denial-of-service attacks on PayPal, Visa and MasterCard in December 2010. [2]

Privacy International

After Weatherhead completed his sentence he went on to work for Human Rights charity Privacy International [6] . Weatherhead is notable for his advocacy relating to targeted advertising [7] [8] and data protection [9]

Weatherhead v. The United Kingdom

Following on from Human Rights Watch (and Others) v The United Kingdom [10] at the European Court of Human Rights, Weatherhead who was a party to that case was awareded compensation and an apology from the British Government for being unlawfully spyed on, in violation of his Article 8 rights [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacktivism</span> Computer-based activities as a means of protest

Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism, is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Hammond</span> American political activist and hacker

Jeremy Hammond, alias sup_g, is an American anarchist activist and former computer hacker from Chicago. He founded the computer security training website HackThisSite in 2003. He was first imprisoned over the Protest Warrior hack in 2005 and was later convicted of computer fraud in 2013 for hacking the private intelligence firm Stratfor and releasing data to WikiLeaks, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Barbora Bukovská is a Czech-Slovak human rights attorney and activist, known originally for her work on racial discrimination of Romani people in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and later for free speech advocacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anonymous (hacker group)</span> Decentralized hacktivist group

Anonymous is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective and movement primarily known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations and the Church of Scientology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Payback</span> Series of cyberattacks conducted by Anonymous

Operation Payback was a coordinated, decentralized group of attacks on high-profile opponents of Internet piracy by Internet activists using the "Anonymous" moniker. Operation Payback started as retaliation to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on torrent sites; piracy proponents then decided to launch DDoS attacks on piracy opponents. The initial reaction snowballed into a wave of attacks on major pro-copyright and anti-piracy organizations, law firms, and individuals. The Motion Picture Association of America, the Pirate Party UK and United States Pirate Party criticised the attacks.

The Jester is a self-identified grey hat hacktivist. He claims to be responsible for attacks on WikiLeaks and Islamist websites. He claims to be acting out of American patriotism.

Anonymous is a decentralized virtual community. They are commonly referred to as an internet-based collective of hacktivists whose goals, like its organization, are decentralized. Anonymous seeks mass awareness and revolution against what the organization perceives as corrupt entities, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Anonymous has had a hacktivist impact. This is a timeline of activities reported to be carried out by the group.

<i>We Are Legion</i> 2012 American film

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists is a 2012 documentary film about the workings and beliefs of the self-described "hacktivist" collective, Anonymous.

Operation Ababil was a series of cyber attacks starting in 2012, targeting various American financial institutions and carried out by a group calling itself the "Cyber fighters of Izz Ad-Din Al Qassam".

OpIsrael (#OpIsrael) is an annual coordinated cyber-attack where hacktivists attack Israeli government and even private websites with DDoS attacks and more. The inaugural campaign was launched in 2013 by Anonymous hackers on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The campaign has since been held annually.

Parmy Olson is a tech journalist for The Wall Street Journal. While at Forbes, she was known for her work on the hacktivist movement Anonymous. She describes herself as covering "agitators and innovators in mobile".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Singapore cyberattacks</span> Cyberattacks done on Singaporean websites

The 2013 Singapore cyberattacks were a series of cyberattacks initiated by the hacktivist organisation Anonymous, conducted partly in response to web censorship regulations in Singapore. A member of Anonymous, known by the online handle "The Messiah", claimed responsibility for spearheading the attacks. On 12 November 2013, James Raj was charged in a Singapore court as the alleged "Messiah".

The PayPal 14 are a group of defendants allegedly connected with the hacktivist group Anonymous, thirteen of whom pleaded guilty in a San Jose court in California, United States in December 2013, to charges of conspiring to disrupt access to the PayPal payment service. The attempted four-day disruption of PayPal's operations was allegedly in response to PayPal's refusal to process donations to Wau Holland Stiftung's PayPal account set up to collect funds for WikiLeaks, and was part of a wider Anonymous campaign, Operation Payback.

Cyberwarfare is a part of Iran's "soft war" military strategy. Being both a victim and wager of cyberwarfare, Iran is considered an emerging military power in the field.

Ghost Security, also known as GhostSec, is a self-described "vigilante" group that was formed to attack ISIS websites that promote Islamic extremism. It is considered an offshoot of the Anonymous hacking collective. According to experts of online jihad activism, the group gained momentum after the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris in January 2015. The group claims to have taken down hundreds of ISIS-affiliated websites or social media accounts and thwarted potential terrorist attacks by cooperating with law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The group uses social media hashtags like #GhostSec - #GhostSecurity or #OpISIS to promote its activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DDoS attacks on Dyn</span> 2016 cyberattack in Europe and North America

On October 21, 2016, three consecutive distributed denial-of-service attacks were launched against the Domain Name System (DNS) provider Dyn. The attack caused major Internet platforms and services to be unavailable to large swathes of users in Europe and North America. The groups Anonymous and New World Hackers claimed responsibility for the attack, but scant evidence was provided.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IT Army of Ukraine</span> Ukrainian cyberwarfare volunteer group

The IT Army of Ukraine is a volunteer cyberwarfare organisation created at the end of February 2022 to fight against digital intrusion of Ukrainian information and cyberspace after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The group also conducts offensive cyberwarfare operations, and Chief of Head of State Special Communications Service of Ukraine Victor Zhora said its enlisted hackers would only attack military targets.

Anonymous Sudan is a hacker group that has been active since mid-January 2023 and believed to be originated from Russia with no links to Sudan or Anonymous. They have launched a variety of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against targets.

References

  1. 1 2 "Anonymous hackers jailed for cyber attacks". The Guardian. 24 January 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  2. 1 2 Cockerton, Paul (24 January 2013). "Anonymous hackers jailed for cyber attacks on financial firms and anti-piracy websites". Mirror UK. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  3. ↑ "Anonymous 'Hacktivist' Christopher Weatherhead guilty of cyber attacks". Standard. 6 December 2012.
  4. 1 2 Shaw, Adrian (6 December 2012). "'Nerdo' hacker guilty: Student helped Anonymous bring down Paypal for 10 days". Mirror UK. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  5. ↑ "Updates on Leak of U.S. Cables, Day 9". The New York Times. 6 December 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  6. ↑ "Christopher Weatherhead". Privacy International. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  7. ↑ "How Facebook tracks you on Android". media.ccc.de. Chaos Computer Club. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  8. ↑ "No Body's Business But Mine, a dive into Menstruation Apps". media.ccc.de. Chaos Computer Club. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  9. ↑ Hampton, Maya (24 August 2017). "The Privacy Paradox: Is the End of Privacy Inevitable?". himaya.medium.com. Medium. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  10. ↑ "HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH v. THE UNITED KINGDOM and 4 other applications". hudoc.echr.coe.int. European Court of Human Rights. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  11. ↑ "WEATHERHEAD v. THE UNITED KINGDOM". hudoc.echr.coe.int. European Court of Human Rights.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.