Alleged Anonymous Hacker Charged by British Police
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hacker group Anonymous's latest target was the San Francisco BART website. (AP Photo/myBART.org)
British police say they have charged a 22-year-old man over attacks carried out by the computer hacking group known as Anonymous.
Scotland Yard released few details Thursday about the charge against Peter David Gibson, a student from Hartlepool in northern England.
Gibson was arrested on April 5 as part of the force's investigation into denial-of-service attacks carried out by Anonymous against various companies.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Denial-of-service attacks work by choking websites with traffic the same way that a telephone line might be jammed with thousands of crank calls.
Anonymous likens such attacks to an online form of civil disobedience, but penalties can be severe. The maximum sentence for a conviction on such a charge is 10 years in prison.