TeamPoison Teenage Chief Pleads Guilty

The teenage leader of the TeamPoison hacking team has pleaded guilty to two charges, including one related to the “phone bomb” attack that hit the Anti-Terrorist Hotline earlier this year.

Hackers representing TeamPoison attacked the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Hotline in April. It was believed they disabled the service by having an automated script make more than 700 hundred calls from a server in Malaysia during a 24-hour onslaught.

A conversation between a TeamPoison member and an employee manning the phones for the hotline was also posted online.

Giving up the ghost?

Following an investigation by the Police Central eCrime Unit (PCeU) and his arrest, Junaid Hussain, an 18-year-old male of Birmingham, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. The Met said as leader of TeamPoison, he was involved in the nuisance phone calls that “had the effect of preventing legitimate callers getting through”.

Hussain also pleaded guilty to an offence contrary to Section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, which related to the illegal acquisition and publication of former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s address book in June 2011 by TeamPoison.

Another offence was “left to lie on file”, the Met said. He will now be sentenced on 27 July.

Further investigations are ongoing into the activities of other members of TeaMp0isoN, the Met said.

Earlier this week, members of notable hacktivist group LulzSec pleaded guilty to charges relating to computer hacking. Teenagers Ryan Cleary and Jake Davis admitted to DDoS attacks on various big name organisations. They denied other charges accusing them of stealing data and posting it on the internet.

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