Kelley engaged in a number of hacking activities and also blackmailed individuals
A man who was involved in the major hack of TalkTalk in 2015 has been sentenced to four years detention.
Daniel Kelley, 22 from Llanelli pleaded guilty to 11 charges in 2016, one of which included the involvement in an attack that stole personal data from more than 150,000 customers.
Kelley was sentenced at the Old Bailey today (June 10) and is to serve the four-year sentence in a young offenders institution.
The breach which took place four years ago and saw email addresses and bank details of customers taken from TalkTalk’s website costed TalkTalk an estimated £77 million. He also targeted companies in Canada and Australia.
Kelley has also hacked other organisations including his former college Coleg Sir Gar, which he hacked “out of spite” after failing to obtain the correct qualifications to get onto a computer course.
He has Aspergers syndrome and has since suffered depression and extreme weight loss since the hacks the court heard.
The Met’s cyber crime unit officer in the case and lead investigator, acting detective sergeant Rob Burrows said: “Kelley is a prolific and ruthless cybercriminal and blackmailer who caused considerable damage, distress, harm and loss to victims’ worldwide.
“From 2013 to 2015, Kelley embarked on a crime spree online for his own financial gain showing no remorse and was a high risk to the public and businesses. His convictions and sentencing today send out a clear message to cyber criminals committing crime anonymously online they will be identified, arrested and prosecuted for their destructive crimes. I encourage all victims of cybercrime to report incidents to Action Fraud.”
It was revealed on Kelley’s computer that between 2013 and 2015 he carried out a range of hacks, obtaining thousands of credit card details and blackmailed individuals and companies for Bitcoin.
He only obtained £4,000 of Bitcoin after allegedly demanding over 753 Bitcoins, which valued at more than £123,700 the court heard.