Crime Solicitors

A hacker who accessed both the UK Home Office website and the website of the FBI in the US has been given a suspended jail sentence at Birmingham Crown Court.

The court heard that on 22 January 2013, Charlton Floate, 19, launched a distributed denial of service attack (DDOS) on the Home Office website and its associated domains. As a result, the website and domains were taken offline for more than an hour.

Police officers located posts on social media which showed that someone using the handle @Thisisgame0ver was taking credit for the cyber attack.

The individual responsible for posting this online handle was later identified as Floate, who was subsequently arrested.

Forensic analysis of Floate's computer also revealed that a week before the attack on the Home Office website, he had also been responsible for a similar cyber attack on a website run by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the US for recording Internet crime – and had also hacked into the computers of two other victims living in the US.

Police also recovered one hundred and eleven prohibited images of children on Floate’s computer.

He was later charged and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an offence contrary to Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, as well as one count of unauthorised acts with intent to impair the operation of a computer, one count of unauthorised access to computer material – and two counts of possessing prohibited images of children.

Senior Crown Prosecutor from the West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service's Complex Casework Unit, Victoria Jones, said:

“The Crown Prosecution Service views any form of cyber-attack very seriously. Those caught committing such offences will be traced and robustly prosecuted.

“Charlton Floate's actions were designed to cause maximum disruption –
and therefore denying legitimate users the ability to use these websites which contained important information for the general public.

“Not content with this, he later hacked into and interfered with the computers of two victims in America.

“Today, Floate has had to deal with the consequences of these cyber attacks – as well as the prohibited images of children, which were found on his computer.”

Floate was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for eight months, suspended for 18 months – and was also ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.

Duncan Lewis Crime Lawyers

Duncan Lewis can advise at any stage of a charge involving IT and cyber crime – including computer hacking charges, online fraud and downloading indecent images.

There are Duncan Lewis offices nationwide – and Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of Legal Aid solicitors.

For expert legal advice on cyber crime, call Duncan Lewis crime lawyers on 020 7923 4020.

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