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Dutch Developer Added Backdoor To Websites He Built, Phished Over 20,000 Users (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: A Dutch developer illegally accessed the accounts of over 20,000 users after he allegedly collected their login information via backdoors installed on websites he built. According to an official statement, Dutch police officials are now in the process of notifying these victims about the crook's actions. The hacker, yet to be named by Dutch authorities, was arrested on July 11, 2016, at a hotel in Zwolle, the Netherlands, and police proceeded to raid two houses the crook owned, in Leeuwarden and Sneek. According to Dutch police, the 35-years-old suspect was hired to build e-commerce sites for various companies. After doing his job, the developer also left backdoors in those websites, which he used to install various scripts that allowed him to collect information on the site's users. Police say that it's impossible to determine the full breadth of his hacking campaign, but evidence found on his laptop revealed he gained access to over 20,000 email accounts. Authorities say the hacker used his access to these accounts to read people's private email conversations, access their social media profiles, sign-up for gambling sites with the victim's credentials, and access online shopping sites to make purchases for himself using the victim's funds.
The Dutch never reveal the names of the accused, even after they are found guilty after trial, has to do with the privacy laws.
Considering the US has the highest recidivism rate, around 76%, in the world, the EU countries by definition are doing better. Norway, as an example, has the lowest recidivism rate, around 20%, in the world.
http://www.businessinsider.com...
As a devil's advocate, it can be argued that other than a direct victim or people who are affected by the criminal's actions, keeping the names of people arrested private isn't such a bad thing. It is a better system than here in the US where as soon as someone is booked, that info goes into hundreds of databases, and even if charges are dropped or the person is found innocent, the arrest record is still public, and can affect finding work in the future. It just might be that the public humiliation of having some peccadillo be forever branded into a person's virtual hide is far greater a punishment than the offense requires.