Man Who Hacked Into Abortion Website Jailed

A 27-year-old "computer whizz-kid" who hacked into the website of the UK's biggest abortion provider and stole the personal details of 10,000 women has been sentenced to two years and eight months in jail.

James Jeffery, 27, who had claimed to be affiliated with the hacking group Anonymous , admitted hacking into the website of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS).

Man Who Hacked Into Abortion Website Jailed

London's Southwark Crown Court heard how Jeffery decided to break into the website because he "disagreed" with the decisions of two women he knew over their pregnancy terminations.

He downloaded a database of around 10,000 patient records. The database contained the names, addresses and telephone numbers of women who had registered with BPAS. It did not contain any specific medical records.

Jeffery also defaced the website by posting the Anonymous logo on the home page along with an anti-abortion written statement. The court heard both the logo and the statement had been copied and pasted from Google.

Jeffery did not publish the stolen records but used Twitter to boast he had obtained them. He published the name and log-on details of a BPAS administrator, Clare Murphy, to prove he had gained access to the site.

BPAS is a not-for-profit organisation which provides pregnancy terminations on the NHS and privately. It is the UK's largest abortion provider and counsels on unplanned pregnancies and abortion treatment. More than 60,000 women use the service every year.

The court heard Jeffery had originally intended to "release all the details" but had later had "a change of heart", deciding it would be wrong to do so.

His alleged links to the international hacking organisation Anonymous are disputed.

Through his defence team, he claimed in court he was not and never had been a member of Anonymous and that it was "never his intention to be seduced by the organisation".

Online conversations between Jeffery and Anonymous were restricted to discussions about underground music, his defence team claimed.

But Daniel Higgins, for the prosecution, said Jeffery had told police in interviews that he "had been part of that group (Anonymous) from sometime last year".

Jeffery hacked the website using easily available software called 'Leaning Penetration Testing' which tests the vulnerability of websites.

After discovering the vulnerability of the BPAS site, Jeffery found similar vulnerabilities in the websites of the FBI, the Houses of Parliament and West Midlands Police.

His defence team acknowledged that "the more curious he became, the less responsible he became".

The operation to catch Jeffery was swift. BPAS contacted police on March 8 after its computer servers were accessed on 26,000 occasions in one six-hour period.

This unprecedented access is believed to be a so-called 'denial-of-service' attack in which a website crashes after being flooded with 'hits'.

Police quickly traced the hacking to Jeffery via his Twitter postings and information provided to them by his internet service provider, BSkyB.

He was arrested in the early hours of the following day. Officers found two computers at his property. One was in the process of having its hard drive wiped.

In court, Jeffery's defence team described him as a "bit of a computer whizz-kid" but insisted he did not pose a wider threat in terms of his motivation to hack.

As mitigation, defence barrister Shaun Wallace said the fact Jeffery had boasted online and made little attempt to make himself anonymous amounted to "rank amateurism of the worst kind".

Mr Wallace added Jeffery had pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity.

The judge, Michael Gledhill QC, was handed a letter written by Jeffery and addressed to BPAS.

In the letter, Jeffery expressed remorse for what he had done and even offered BPAS advice on how they could make their website and database more secure.

In sentencing, Judge Gledhill QC said at the time of the offences, Jeffery held strong views about abortion.

"Just as many people disagree with the view you held, many do agree," the judge said.

"However, those who find abortion repugnant do not use this as an excuse to justify deliberately committing offences."

The judge added: "To the charity itself, the fear is that great harm may have been done - only time will tell whether the consequences of your actions are as grave as feared."

Jeffery will serve half his sentence before being released on licence.