Student, 16, ‘ran a helpline for cyber hackers’
A COLLEGE student appeared in court accused of helping hackers carry out cyber attacks on major organisations when he was just 16.
Jack Chappell, now 18, is accused of offering a subscription service so criminals could monitor online credit card payments. He was arrested following an investigation by anti-cyber crime police into the launch of denial-of-service attacks on NatWest, the National Crime Agency, the BBC, BT and Netflix.
Chappell, of Heaton Moor, Gtr Manchester, supplied the service and ran an online helpdesk as part of the operation, according to West Midlands Police.
Chappell faced four charges at Manchester magistrates court yesterday relating to cyber crime between May 2015, when he was 16, and May last year. He gave no indication of his plea. The first charge accuses him of “offering a subscription service through which the subscriber could launch DDoS attacks”. If convicted, he faces up to 12 months in jail.
Chappell was granted bail and will appear at Minshull Street court in Manchester on July 26.