£70m Talktalk hacker gets four years for ‘cruel’ crimes
A “CRUEL and calculating” cyber criminal who took part in a massive Talktalk hack attack and blackmailed former chief executive Dido Harding has been jailed for four years.
Daniel Kelley, from Llanelli, South Wales, turned to “black hat” hacking after he failed to achieve the GCSE grades required for a computer course.
He hacked the college “out of spite” before targeting companies in Canada, Australia and the UK – including the telecoms giant which has four million customers.
Kelley, now aged 22, has Asperger’s syndrome and has suffered from depression and extreme weight loss since he pleaded guilty to 11 hackingrelated offences in 2016.
Judge Mark Dennis sentenced him at the Old Bailey to four years’ detention in a young offenders institution.
Judge Dennis said Kelley hacked computers “for his own personal gratification” regardless of the damage caused. He went on to blackmail company bosses, revealing a “cruel and calculating side to his character”, he said.
Kelley caused “stress and anxiety” to his victims as well as harm to their businesses, with the total cost to Talktalk from multiple hackers estimated at £77 million.
Prosecutor Peter Ratliff had described Kelley as a “prolific, skilled and cynical cyber criminal” who was willing to “bully, intimidate, and then ruin his chosen victims from a perceived position of anonymity and safety”. However, Kelley’s crimes were eventually revealed through his online activity.
In September 2012, he boasted on Skype that he was “involved with black hat activities” in reference to malicious hacking, commenting: “Oh God, this is so illegal.”
Speaking outside court, Det Con Rob Burrows, of the Metropolitan Police cybercrime unit, said the sentence “sent out a clear message” to hackers that “they will be identified and prosecuted for their destructive crimes”.