Man admits hacking abortion website

Hacker James Jeffery has admitted hacking into the British Pregnancy Advisory Service website, putting the personal information of thousands of women at risk

Hacker James Jeffery has admitted hacking into the British Pregnancy Advisory Service website, putting the personal information of thousands of women at risk.

The 27 year old man was arrested following a breach in security of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) website - the service that provides support to women during pregnancy and whilst undergoing abortion.

Jeffery boasted on Twitter that he had stolen the records of almost 10,000 women registered on the site because he 'disagreed' with abortion. The cyber attack threatened the privacy of thousands of women who have used the service

A court injunction was taken out when BPAS became aware that the security of its users had been compromised. The Met’s e-Crime Unit was notified and the suspect was detained under the Computer Misuse Act.

Following fears that information would be released into the public domain, BPAS said: ‘While the confidentiality of women receiving treatment was never in danger, this episode was taken very seriously indeed’.

‘Relevant authorities were informed and appropriate legal action taken to prevent the dissemination of any information obtained from the website’.

BPAS holds the names, addresses and phone numbers of people who have used the site to request information, however detective inspector Mark Raymond from the Met’s e-Crime Unit said: ‘It should be stressed that the stolen data did not contain the medical details of women who had received treatment or why individuals had contacted the British Pregnancy Advice Service’.

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