
Dutch authorities arrested a 40-year-old man after he downloaded confidential paperwork that had been mistakenly shared by the police and refused to delete them except he obtained “one thing in return.”
Police detained the suspect at his Prinses Beatrixstraat residence in Ridderkerk on Thursday night for laptop hacking after the failed “extortion” try, looking his house and seizing information storage units to recuperate the recordsdata.
The incident started when the person contacted police on February 12 about photos he had that could be related to an ongoing investigation. An officer responded to his inquiry however, as a substitute of sending a hyperlink to add the photographs, mistakenly shared a obtain hyperlink to confidential police paperwork.
As first reported by DataBreaches.Internet, the person downloaded the recordsdata regardless of the plain error. When the police instructed him to cease downloading and delete the supplies, he allegedly refused except he was given “one thing in return.”
In a Monday press launch, the Dutch police stated that knowingly downloading recordsdata from a hyperlink clearly meant for importing constitutes potential laptop trespass below Dutch regulation, significantly when instructed to not entry the supplies.
“Should you obtain a obtain hyperlink, when you know that it is best to get an add hyperlink, it’s clearly stated that it’s not downloaded and chooses to obtain the recordsdata anyway, then you could be responsible of laptop trespassing,” the police stated.
“The recipient can moderately assume that the obtain hyperlink and the recordsdata which can be shared with it usually are not meant for him.”
Authorities reported the information breach and launched an investigation regardless that they’ve but to seek out proof that the confidential paperwork had been distributed past the suspect’s possession.
The Dutch police additionally emphasised that recipients of misdirected confidential supplies have a authorized obligation to report errors and to chorus from accessing or retaining paperwork not meant for them, no matter how the supplies had been obtained.
“The police don’t have any indication that the recordsdata had been distributed additional. They’re following protocol for information breaches. The police are persevering with their investigation,” the authorities added.

