Christopher Weatherhead, also known by his alias "Nerdo", is a Northampton University student who was jailed for his involvement in several

cyberattacks A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...

by Anonymous.

Anonymous

Weatherhead has been an active leader for Anonymous, a loose-knit group of "

hacktivists In Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism (a portmanteau of ''hack'' and '' activism''), 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 ha ...

". It was reported that Weatherhead hosted an election of Anonymous members to pick the group's next target.

Operation Payback

Weatherhead played a large role in Operation Payback, a series of cyberattacks conducted by Anonymous against various organizations because the hackers "did not agree with their views." 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 The Wau Holland Foundation (German: Wau Holland Stiftung; WHS) is a nonprofit foundation based in Hamburg, Germany. It was established in 2003 in memory of Wau Holland, co-founder of the Chaos Computer Club. Loosely connected with the Chaos Compu ...

, which raises funds for

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

, after attention shifted from companies involved in digital rights. Weatherhead reportedly was instrumental in bringing down

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

for 10 days, resulting in £3.5million in losses for the company. In January 2013, Weatherhead was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in the

denial-of-service attacks In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connec ...

on PayPal, Visa and MasterCard in December 2010. An officer involved in bringing in Weatherhead said that he was particularly easy to find because he had been using the nickname "Nerdo" for "quite some time".

References

Cybercrime in the United Kingdom Anonymous (hacker group) activists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the University of Northampton Hacktivists {{UK-crime-bio-stub