Computer hacker fined £21,000

A computer hacker who admitted offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 has been fined £21,000 and given a 36-week prison sentence suspended for two years.

Daniel Woo, a Bulgarian national of Hans Crescent, London SW1, had been caught installing password-capturing software on the campus network of the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies.  The hacker, described by the Metropolitan Police as 'ruthless', had gained unauthorised access to the network by pretending to be a student.  He had hacked into hundreds of private emails containing private identification and financial information.  It was later established that some of the compromised payment accounts had been subject to fraud.

See further section 7.2 of the Privacy Law Handbook