Jailed schoolboy takes IT classes, hacks prison computers

Old habits seem to die hard for a hacker, who was jailed for a £15-million (P919-million) fraud scam —and promptly hacked into the prison's computer system after taking IT classes there.

 

A report on the UK's The Daily Mail posted last March 2 said the incident involving hacker Nicholas Webber, 21, cost prison IT teacher Michael Fox his job.

 

Webber had been ordered jailed at the HMP Isis in South London for five years for running a criminal website GhostMarket that sold stolen credit card details.

 

The hack at the prison triggered a security scare during a lesson but it was not immediately clear what information he managed to access.

 

The Daily Mail report said a Prison Service spokesman confirmed Webber's involvement but did not elaborate.

 

"At the time of this incident in 2011 the educational computer system at HMP Isis was a closed network. No access to personal information or wider access to the internet or other prison systems would have been possible," the Daily Mail quoted the spokesman as saying.

 

It added the incident happened a year after the opening of the £110-million prison, which houses 18- to 24-year-olds.

 

The jail had been hounded by technological problems due to breakdowns in its biometric roll-call system.

 

Under that system, inmates have to leave an electronic thumbprint whenever they move from one part of the jail to another.

 

Webber was the son of a former member of Guernsey’s parliament, the Daily Mail report said.

 

Teacher banned

 

For his part, Fox, who was employed by Kensington and Chelsea College, was banned from the prison.

 

While the college cleared Fox of committing security breaches, he was made redundant when no alternative work could be found for him.

 

Fox has since filed a claim for unfair dismissal, where he said it was not his decision to put Webber in his class, and that he had no idea Webber was a hacker.

 

"(Fox) did not feel he had done anything wrong as the student concerned was in his view a convicted computer hacker and should not have been allowed in his classroom," the college's business development director Shanie Jamieson said.

 

On the other hand, Fox accused the college at a hearing at Croydon Employment Tribunal that it did not do enough to find him another job. The report said the tribunal hearing was adjourned until April.

 

Using fraudulent card details

 

Webber had been arrested for using fraudulent credit card details to pay for a penthouse suite at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, Central London.

 

He set up the GhostMarket website after leaving the £24,000-a-year Bradfield College where got in hot water for deleting friends’ detention records from the school computer.

 

Police estimate the stolen credit card information could have been used to steal £15 million, though they have so far documented only £473,000.

 

Webber was also found to have used the stolen credit card details to buy gadgets and stays in luxury hotels, the report said. — TJD, GMA News