Security News > 2023 > January > Bloke allegedly stole, sold private info belonging to 'tens of millions' globally
A man suspected of stealing personal data belonging to tens of millions of people worldwide and selling that info on cybercrime forums has been arrested by Dutch police.
The alleged crook pulled together information including names, genders, addresses, and birth dates belonging to pretty much everyone in Austria, it is claimed.
The Austrian plod led the initial probed, and discovered the data belonging to nearly 9 million people for sale on a cybercrime forum, according to Agence France Presse.
"The man is suspected of trading the personal details of tens of millions of people, stolen from all over the world," Dutch prosecutors said in a statement provided to AFP. He is facing charges related to making available non-public data, possessing phishing software and other cyber-crime tools, computer trespassing, and money laundering.
Considering the amount of private information he allegedly stole and sold, the ill-gotten gains don't seem worth the trouble, not to mention the years of imprisonment he has to look forward to, if convicted.
The news of the Dutch crook follows an admission by T-Mobile US that someone abused an API to steal personal information belonging to 37 million subscribers.