The jury in the trial of a Northampton student accused of a campaign of cyber attacks by hacking group Anonymous was today ordered not to listen to a BBC Radio 4 programme due to be broadcast tonight.
Judge Peter Testar directed jurors trying Christopher Weatherhead, 22, for conspiracy to impair the operation of computers, not to listen to the programme due to be broadcast at 8pm because it might touch on “matters directly or indirectly associated with this case”.
Weatherhead, of Holly Road, Abington, Northampton, is accused of being a “hacktivist” taking part in distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks, one of which cost the website PayPal £3.5 million. He denies the charge.
Judge Testar told the jury at Southwark Crown Court in London: “I don’t know what is going to happen in the course of the programme but it may touch upon matters which are in the background of this case.
“I know that when I give a direction to a jury they will follow it because jurors are conscientious people, so I say to you, do not listen to Radio 4 at 8 o’clock this evening.
“I don’t think that will be too great a sacrifice to you because in these days of the iPlayer it will be available when the case finishes.
“But just in case it touches on matters directly or indirectly associated with this case I ask you not to.”
Weatherhead was studying at Northampton University when he is alleged to have taken part in the cyber campaign which also attacked other sites including MasterCard, Visa, Ministry of Sound, the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
The prosecution says Paypal was attacked after it decided not to process payments on behalf of the Wau Holland Foundation, an organisation involved in raising funds for WikiLeaks.
Between December 8 and 17 2010, PayPal was the victim of a series of attacks “which caused considerable damage to its reputation and loss of trade”.
At least 104 employees from eBay, the parent company of PayPal, were employed to work on issues directly related to the attack for three weeks afterwards, the court heard.
PayPal also had to pay for further software and hardware to defend against similar future attacks and combined with the loss of trading the court heard it cost the firm £3.5 million.
The amount the hacking cost MasterCard and Visa was not given but the court previously heard the defendant, in an internet relay chat (IRC) channel conversation with someone called Tred, boasted: “We have probably done some million pound of dmg (damage) to mc (MasterCard).”
The BPI was the subject of an attack on September 19 and 20 2010, the court heard, leading it to have to pay out £3,996 for online security and hundreds of pounds in other costs.
Four websites run by the Ministry of Sound were targeted in two separate attacks between October 2 and 6 2010, which cost the company around £9,000 in additional staffing, software and loss of sales.
The financial cost to the IFPI was more than £20,000 as its website was down for nine days when it was hacked between November 27 and December 6 2010.
Jurors have been told three other defendants had already been convicted of the charge.
Ashley Rhodes, 27, of Bolton Crescent, Camberwell, south London, Peter Gibson, 24, of Castletown Road, Hartlepool, and Jake Birchall, 18, from Chester are awaiting sentence.
The trial continues.
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