New Jersey-resident Dmitriy Guzner, 18, has already agreed to plead guilty of unauthorised impairment of a protected computer. The bill for his plea is rather expensive, as he will have to pay $37,500 in damages.
Still, the legal trouble is far from being over for him. According to the US Department of Justice, Guzner could be sentenced to a maximum 10 years imprisonment at the end of the trial.
However, such a sentence could prove far too harsh for the defendant, described only as a small cog in the Anonymous mechanism. The group had its attacks against the Church of Scientology. Split into two tiers. The first tier, composed of the group’s skilled members was responsible for writing the attack code, while the second tier – ordinary members, Guzner included – had to implement it.
The court papers read the following:
"[Guzner]knowingly caused the transmission of information, codes and commands and, as a result of such conduct, intentionally and without authorisation caused damage by impairing the integrity and availability of data, a program, a system and information on a computer system that was used in interstate and foreign commerce and communications, specifically websites belonging to the Church of Scientology".
The Anonymous group is known not only for its attacks on the Church of Scientology, but also for and the hacking of Sarah Palin’s email or for tracking down of Chris Forcand.