Anonymous Hacking Attack Lands British Rock Guitarist In Jail
” Geoffrey “Jake” Commander, a rock guitarist who has played with the Electric Light Orchestra, George Harrison and Elton John, among others, walked unnoticed through the halls of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria early Friday afternoon.
Having been found indigent by a federal judge, the 66-year-old was accompanied by a court-appointed lawyer. Nearly four years to the day earlier, as his attorney put it, Commander, “like the crew of Gilligan’s Island, went on a three-hour tour that led to disastrous consequences.”
He was one of 13 people charged last year as members of the underground group Anonymous in attacks against financial institutions and other companies. Initially, he faced up to 10 years in federal prison.
Later, though, the case was quietly downgraded to a misdemeanor. On Friday, Commander was sentenced to 10 days in the Alexandria jail. With credit for one day served already after his arrest, he’ll be out early next week.
Records hardly depict Commander as a cybercrime mastermind as much as an online surfer who stumbled his way into an unfamiliar chat room. Once there, in what he later would call an “impulsive, spurious and foolish” decision, he clicked on a link that would lead him years later right into the crosshairs of the Justice Department. “
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