Christopher Weatherhead, also known by his alias Nerdo, is an activist, hacker and technologist. Weatherhead was jailed for his involvement in several cyberattacks by hacker collective

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

Anonymous

Weatherhead has been an active leader for Anonymous, a loose-knit group of "

hacktivists Hacktivism (or hactivism; a portmanteau of ''hack'' and ''activism''), is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. A form of Internet activism with roots ...

". It was reported that Weatherhead had seniority within the group.

Operation Payback

Weatherhead played a significant role in Operation Payback, a series of cyberattacks conducted by Anonymous against various organizations because the hackers "did not agree with their views." In particular, Weatherhead was known for his work on Operation Avenge Assange, which was part of Operation Payback as a whole. Operation Avenge Assange focused on disrupting PayPal and other payment sites that despite transferring funds indiscriminately for other organisations, including neonazi organisations, would not process transfers to the Wau Holland Foundation, which raises funds for

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

, after attention shifted from companies involved in digital rights. Weatherhead reportedly was instrumental in bringing down

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

for 10 days, resulting in a reported £3.5million in losses for the company. In January 2013, Weatherhead was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in the

denial-of-service attacks In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyberattack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host co ...

on PayPal, Visa and MasterCard in December 2010.

Privacy International

After Weatherhead completed his sentence he went on to work for

Human Rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

charity

Privacy International Privacy International (PI) is a UK-based registered charity that defends and promotes the right to privacy across the world. First formed in 1990, registered as a non-profit company in 2002 and as a charity in 2012, PI is based in London. Its ...

. Weatherhead is notable for his advocacy relating to

targeted advertising Targeted advertising or data-driven marketing is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting. These traits can either ...

and

data protection Data protection may refer to: * Information privacy, also known as data privacy * Data security {{Authority control ...

Weatherhead v. The United Kingdom

Following on from

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

(and Others) v The United Kingdom at the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

, Weatherhead who was a party to that case was awarded compensation and an apology from the British Government for being unlawfully spyed on, in violation of his Article 8 rights

References

Cybercrime in the United Kingdom Anonymous (hacker group) activists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the University of Northampton Hacktivists {{UK-crime-bio-stub