Man who hacked and extorted Allekabels in 2020 no longer has to go to prison

A man who was behind a large-scale data breach at Allekabels.nl in 2020 has been sentenced to a conditional prison sentence of one year and 180 hours of community service. The 28-year-old man must also pay 113,000 euros in damages and his cryptocurrency wallets containing extorted money have been seized. The man also hacked many other companies.

The court in Amsterdam has determined this, notes Security.nl. The 28-year-old man digitally broke into many companies between 2021 and 2023, but the conviction now specifically revolves around the hack on Allekabels. That webshop was hacked in 2020, which caused a lot of commotion. This was partly due to the webshop itself. The company initially said 5,000 customers were affected, but it later turned out to be 3.6 million. Moreover, according to victims, the webshop responded slowly to the first signals of a hack.

The man who has now been convicted is one of the two who hacked the webshop. He stole data, but then also extorted the company by asking for a monthly amount of cryptocurrency. In total, Allekabels paid around 37,000 euros in currencies such as bitcoin, Monero and other crypto coins.

The judge says that it is difficult to determine exactly what part of the money in the cryptocurrency wallets comes from the specific extortion of Allekabels, but that it is undeniable that this money was obtained unlawfully. Allekabels demanded compensation of 261,000 euros, but the judge says that the man 'only' has to pay back 113,000 euros. This has to do with the fact that the price of the bitcoin has increased sharply since the hack, but that Allekabels could not prove that it itself was entitled to that amount.

Although the case revolved around Allekabels, it is also a factor that he was also convicted of several hacks in another case in 2023. The man already received an unconditional prison sentence for hacking InHolland University of Applied Sciences, Ticketcounter, Senior Publications, Litebit, RDC, New York Pizza, Arnhem-Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences, Scoupy, Homerun and Waternet. Because he was already in prison before that, and because the case surrounding Allekabels only started after years, the judge thinks a suspended sentence is enough.