UK Lulzsec member pleads guilty to computer hacking charge

Ryan Ackroyd, 26, from South Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to one charge of carrying out an unauthorised act to impair the operation of a computer, in breach of the Criminal Law Act, during a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, according to media reports.

By pleading guilty to the charge Ackroyd admitted to conducting hacking attacks on systems owned by Sony, Nintendo, News International and the NHS, among others, Reuters reported. Ackroyd was part of a hacking group known as 'Lulzsec'. Three other individuals have also pleaded guilty to charges relating to hacking and launching cyber attacks, according to the BBC.

The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that Ackroyd is due to be sentenced on 14 May.

The Criminal Law Act states that individuals are guilty of conspiring to commit an offence if they carry out actions "in accordance with their intentions" that they had agreed with others that "will necessarily amount to or involve the commission of any offence or offences by one or more of the parties to the agreement, or would do so but for the existence of facts which render the commission of the offence or any of the offences impossible".

Under the Computer Misuse Act a person can be fined and imprisoned if they are found guilty of any unauthorised act with intent to impair the operation of any computer, prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer, impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data, or enabling those acts to be done.

Earlier this year Sony was fined £250,000 by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) after the watchdog found that the company was guilty of a serious breach of the UK's Data Protection Act (DPA). The ICO said that Sony had not taken "appropriate technical measures" to protect the security of personal data stored on its PlayStation Network (PSN) which was stolen when hackers broke into its systems in 2011. Sony has appealed the decision.