Man charged in DEC hacking affair

A London man is to appear in court next week after being charged with attempting to hack into a charity Web site set up to raise relief funds for victims of the Asian tsunami disaster.

Daniel James Cuthbert, 28, of Whitechapel in East London has been charged with one offence under section one of the Computer Misuse Act following an unauthorised attempt to access the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Web site on New Year's Eve.

The alleged hack was detected immediately and the Metropolitan Police notified, which led to the arrest of Cuthbert on 20 January where he was bailed while police examined computer equipment seized during a search of his home.

Cuthbert has now been charged and will appear at Horseferry Magistrates court in London next Thursday.

Tsunami charities have been the target of several other unrelated Internet scams. Some Chinese fraudsters have been manipulating Google rankings to try to ensure their fake donations site ranks higher than genuine ones.

Another UK man was jailed for six months after his email hoax informed families searching for relatives missing in the midst of the tsunami crisis that their loved ones were dead.