Bitcoin Forum

Recently, I opened up a thread about Teen crook hacked into 75 phones and stole $1M in cryptocurrency: authorities  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5211223.0). This time, 22-year old Londoner Kerem Albayrak was sentenced today after attempting to blackmail Apple by threatening to factory reset 319 million iCloud accounts and selling the users' data and demanding $75,000 in crypto-currency.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/apple-blackmailed-for-100k-in-itunes-cards-to-avoid-data-leak/

However, I think the sentenced was too weak, I think if this happens in the US Kerem could get heavier punishment. Probably the court wanted to teach the kid a lesson, but we all know that crime is a crime. I disagree with the court's decision though. Those cyber criminals should get harsher punishment.

Someone I knew nicked a bag of coal from their local petrol station. They had the police helicopter after them and were cornered by three police cars. I guess it was a quiet night.

If I walk into my local shop and walk out with £150 worth of junk I'll have my head caved in and the full force of the law thrown at me.

If I nick £2 million from tricking pensioners into doing bank transfers to me no one will lift a finger to attempt to find me.

I don't get how we reached this state of affairs.

I agree that he should have given a more serious punishment but at the same time am slightly interested in how the government plans on implementing that electronic curfew.
Because I don't think the government can do that because of so many things we have now a days considering the web of internet is everywhere.
And what was the guy thinking ? When he was blackmailing apple ? Ofc they are gonna find him , it's a tech company.

It's just a typical bluff. Some people does really think they could get away with such stunt. However, they leak their own data and make their own trap by commiting mistakes that spills their true skills in terms of such acts.

Either they're desperate, or they underestimate these companies, or they're just too confident. They must have thought too much of those real hackers/exploiters that did impact the systems significantly, leading them to be hired by the company they exploited.

Obviously the punishment could have been more severe! However, what's important is that such criminals are at least getting arrested and brought under the court of law!

It's about channelising your energy to the right direction. If a kid of 22 years is able to hack through Apple network, definitely he is no ordinary computer programmer! But instead of using his skills for right things, he used it in a wrong way! I am glad, he at least got some punishment while many others are still roaming free!

He really deserve the punishment I believed the judge was a bit lenient with his punishment out of pity being a teenager I am quite sure this judgment would send a signal to others hackers or criminals, this is the second conviction within a span of a week his conviction would sure serve as deterrent to other would-be hackers who are always bent on devising ways to steal or scam innocent victims of their hard earned coins.

Indeed, he should suffer and face the consequences of his actions in that way he will realize his mistakes and learn his lesson. I hope that they are able to punish many hackers and scammers because it making us think that their number is increasing day by day. Hackers these days are getting wiser, once someone had figured out on how to get rid of them they are still capable on looking for some ways to get what they want and that is the reason why we have to be more cautious. They will never stop unless they already get the benefits they wanted for us and they will always take the opportunity to deceive us and take advantage of us that is why we need to be attentive particularly on making decision and action because one mistake can ruin everything and all of our funds will be gone.

Of course, the punishment is too weak, laws and the judiciary are not adequate in such cases. As gentlemand pointed out, this prick would very likely receive a much bigger sentence if he stole something from the store, or broke into someone's home. I do not agree that he would receive a higher sentence in the US, it is evident from similar examples that very small penalties are imposed on such offenses.

Once again I will say that this is not about people belonging to the western civilization, just check their names and things become very clear. Maybe this is the reason for the very small penalties, extra discount to avoid racial discrimination?

Lol, sad that he only demanded $75000 when blackmailing one of the richest company in the world xD hopefully he learns his lesson though, indeed he is lucky that he's getting only that less time in prison, surely in any other country it could be atleast 10 years.

Since the Crypto industry is still new to the other country in the world, more likely they will have less punishment for it. until they study the possible punishment to sentence a certain individual by committing crimes with cryptocurrencies. however, in some 3rd country in the world, they already using cryptocurrencies as one of their currency and managed to implement some laws regarding it. that's why the other country needs to copy its law to avoid weak jurisdictions.

There might just have some deal done with him and Apple sort of a compromise that made a penalty lighter, he after all helped Apple learn the vulnerabilities of their system and probably made sure he didn't copy anything like that of the flapenning.  But why only $75K, he should have ask millions if he just have to commit this crime. $75K is nothing to Apple.

Imagine blackmailing a company that worth trillions dollar, it's basically like a suicide. Company like apple having that big capital is not for nothing and trying to catch person like this blackmailer is like a piece of cake considering all the connection this company has.
Sometimes people like this need to learn the hard way so that they won't repeat the same mistakes.

LOL, Apple probably has bunch of hackers at their disposal, after all all these sweet jailbreaker get hired by them and had nothing better to do, no matter how good one hacker is,  plenty of white hat hackers could easily team up and screwed up big time.

I do not think so. I think it is a proper judgment for a young man. He is a talented person, if the sentence is too heavy, it can ruin a talent in their country. With this judgment, after it is over, they can completely summon him and use his talents for any other plan. The law should be strict, but it should also be flexible to be able to take advantage of people like him.

It surely serves him right, these hackers need to be hunted down and punished severely to deter other folks from engaging in such behaviours. i am still waiting to hear what happened to the Mt.Gox hackers who stold over 80K Bitcoins. So far, i guess they have stolen the largest number of bitcoins in this industry

actually if someone goes to prison then they will be mentally depressed. and I think that time is long enough for mistakes to be made, because I also believe that the courts do so based on the existing laws in the country. and certainly each country has its own punishment which are certainly based on strong principles

It surely serves him right, these hackers need to be hunted down and punished severely to deter other folks from engaging in such behaviours. i am still waiting to hear what happened to the Mt.Gox hackers who stole over 80K Bitcoins. So far, i guess they have stolen the largest number of bitcoins in the crypto industry.

Young ages are becoming more into hacking nowadays, I don't know why. But wrong is still wrong.
Talented indeed but he used his talent in a wrong way! That's still a crime that needs to be punished. Just because a person is skilled enough that doesn't mean that he doesn't deserve a heavy punishment. You don't want to ruin a single person's talent but that person can ruin the country! No matter what kind a person is, if he did something wrong he is responsible for paying back. Skill is nothing without a good characteristics. A person can learn that skill but it's hard to teach a person to be good. There's still a lot of talented people with a pure intention out there that the government can use

I think it's good that the punishment is not harsh. As I've mentioned in the thread about that teenager, young hackers are talented people with a lot of potential that can be directed to do good things like fighting terrorism and improving security. If such a person gets a harsh punishment, the life of this person is ruined (just like the life of Ross Ulbricht unfortunately is). So best-case scenario this person does not do anything good for society and stays useless, whereas the worst-case scenario is that this person uses the time to develop the perfect revenge. I am glad to see that some other members also expressed such views.

Overzealous prosecutors are looking to make a name for themselves sometimes. That guy could have gotten away with a slap of the wrist even if what he did was illegal. The thing is, if you scrutinize it too much, the maximum sentence looks more likely all of a sudden.

The difference here is that Kerem Albayrak is not a real hacker, he is just a wannabe who got the information online and just flaunted around without really having the skills and his motive was to make some quick bucks claiming something he has no skills whats so ever, all his devices are confiscated and nothing can be found and that is the reality of the event. He might be seeing too much movies to think that he can make money scamming Apple  :D.

Well that's what his defence attorney trying to portray him. But we all know that he has technical knowledge. Good job by the defence attorney here, but I agree that he should be getting more jail time. Once he got out, chance are he will get back to his old habits again, just saying.

Hackers who are only 22 years old do not have enough experience. Therefore Kerem Albayrak cannot think long with doing Apple
blackmail attempting. And now he has to take responsibility for the actions he has done. Indeed I agree with other opinion who said
that the sentence given was too light, later it would not make a deterrent effect on the perpetrators. And it could be after serving
his sentence, it is very likely that he will repeat his actions.