Smirking cyber thug who cost BA £100k walks free with just a £200 fine

Loner caught after boasting about exploits on Twitter

costing the airline about £100,000 in lost business.

Asked how Dixon was traced by police, Ms Wood said: “By his Twitter account. He could not resist boasting about his actions live on Twitter. That appears to have been his sole motive.”

“It was clear the attacks were pre-meditated”, she added, with more than 1000 visits to “stresser” sites more than two and a half weeks before the attacks.

Durham Police traced purchases of malware from Dixon’s Paypal records. He gave a false name in London, and a fake email address. But they traced him through his Twitter handle, and arrested him in South Shields, Tyneside, on October 31, 2014.

He had five interviews late that year and early in 2015, initially claiming his computer had been hacked. But experts found no interference with his computers, including a Skype account called “untolerated” and messages to “Team Oosh” hacking group.

He tweeted on October 17, after the attack on Police Scotland: ‘#oosh squad, no Scotland Police maybe next time oops.”

He taunted Durham Police on Twitter: “Where is your security?” although the site’s firewall did withstand his two attacks.

And he claimed his attack had “Nazi’d” British Airways via his Skype account. By May 2015, when Durham officers told him his account had not been hacked, he was saying they should employ him to look at their cyber security.

Sam Faulks, defending, admitted Dixon had “delusions of grandeur” but described him as geek who spent most of his time in his bedroom with few friends and limited social skills.

He told the judge, Recorder John Aitken: “Prison is never an easy option but it is easier for some than others.

“For a computer nerd like Mr Dixon, prison will be a pretty ghastly experience.”

The judge gave Dixon a two year suspended sentence, and ordered him to pay £200 costs. He must wear an electronic tag under curfew at his home in County Durham for three months.