Dennis Su isn’t the one that hacked Australian telecoms big Optus final September, in one of many largest information breaches within the nation’s historical past.
But he did try to use the hack which uncovered the non-public particulars of as many as 10 million buyer Optus accounts to his personal profit.
Su, who was 19 years outdated on the time of his bungled crime spree, despatched SMS textual content messages to 92 Optus clients telling them that their private particulars can be bought to fraudsters inside days except AU $2,000 (roughly US $1,400) was transferred right into a checking account.
First mistake: Su didn’t demand his ransom fee in cryptocurrency, which might have been tougher for the authorities to trace. Instead, he gave his meant victims the checking account particulars… of his 15-year-old brother.
Second mistake: When Su despatched the SMS textual content messages, he despatched them from his personal cell phone quantity.
In case you’re questioning, Australlian police didn’t have an excessive amount of bother understanding who was accountable…
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Su, who reportedly noticed “an opportunity to make quick money” as he was “having a difficult time being unemployed,” was hardly demonstrating his intelligence to any future employer with these sort of elementary bungles.
“He was going to be caught pretty easily, I would have thought. It wasn’t a sophisticated method of hiding behind encrypted accounts,” stated Magistrate Emma Manea at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court.
According to native information studies, Su has apologised for his crimes.
Clearly recognising that Su assisted the police with their investigation and that jail may not be the very best place for him, Ms Manea sentenced Su to an 18-month group corrections order and 100 hours of group service.
Perhaps the largest punishment of all might be Dennis Su’s identify being eternally related to an awfully inept and cack-handed try to frighten individuals out of cash.
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