22-year-old Daniel Kelley faces a four-year imprisonment stint at a young offenders’ institution. The news follows Kelley’s decision to plead guilty to hacking attacks on TalkTalk telecom company. Following this, the young man heard his sentence at the Old Bailey last June 10, 2019.
Spurred Retaliation
Daniel Kelley ventured into hacking after failing to obtain substantial GCSE grades, therefore failing to get into a computer course. According to a report by BBC, the suspect hacked the college’s system “out of spite.”
After the first hacking incident, Kelley targeted other companies based in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. One of these companies includes TalkTalk, a telecom company based in the U.K. with more than four million customers.
The Mirror states Kelley joined a group of cybercriminals who worked on the TalkTalk security breach on October 2015. The team calls itself Team Hans, state Metro. The data leak from the company gathered personal information of more than 155,000 consumers.
Apart from hacking, the group also resulted to blackmail. Blackmailed executives from the telecom company include Baroness Harding of Winscombe, reports Mirror. The team reportedly asked executives for Bitcoin.
Despite making claims for more than £115,000, Daniel only received £4,400 worth of Bitcoins.
Hacking Spree
The hacking activities at the TalkTalk led to numerous losses amounting to millions of pounds, reports Mirror.
Besides close involvement with the criminal group, the young man became involved in other illegal black hat activities. This included participation in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS). According to Metro, the DDoS attack affected the Welsh government, with schools, hospitals, and other institutions left vulnerable.
Despite previous arrests, Kelley continued with his activities, often posting and bragging about exploits on the web. In an online forum, Metro found a comment stating, “Oh God, this is so illegal.”
BBC states that prosecutor Peter Ratliff found Daniel as a “prolific, skilled and cynical cyber-criminal.” The activities performed by the suspect aims to fulfil self-gratification.
Following this, the suspect continued to engage with many illegal activities from September 2013 to November 2015.
Pleading Guilty
Daniel Kelley pled guilty to 11 charges. Based on Metro, the charges filed against him include six counts of blackmail and hacking with intent. Kelley also faces charges of possession of articles for fraud and offering to supply date in connection with the fraud.
Kelley acknowledged his involved last December 2016. Since then, the suspect underwent extreme weight loss and depression.
