‘Latter-day pirates’ jailed for global cyber attacks

Members of a group of young British computer hackers who masterminded sophisticated cyber attacks on major global institutions from their bedrooms have been sentenced.

Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis, Mustafa Al-Bassam and Ryan Cleary considered themselves to be “latter-day pirates” when they masterminded sophisticated cyber attacks on major global institutions, including the CIA, Sony, the FBI and Nintendo.

They were “hactivists” with the LulzSec collective behind attacks that stole sensitive personal data, including emails, online passwords and credit card details belonging to millions of people.