The Germany Hacker is Caught - Confesses and then Released

Styling himself "G0d", he published private information about politicians, journalists, and celebrities on Twitter, under the username @_0rbit. Investigators said the man was still in education and living with his parents.

The suspect said he acted alone and out of annoyance at statements made by the public figures he attacked. About 1,000 people were affected, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Politicians from every major political party except for the far-right AfD were targeted, although investigators said they had yet to find evidence of the suspect's political inclinations.

German data theft: Suspect confesses in Hesse

Something seems off here. You can hack the German Chancellor not to mention other politicians, journalists, and celebrities then confess and be released.

He is accused of spying among other things. They released him on lack of grounds for detention even though he confessed.

Investigators said the German citizen they arrested had co-operated and led them to evidence they may not have found without help. Police are also still investigating seized computer hardware.

In a statement, the BKA said he was detained after a search of his home in the state of Hesse on Sunday. He is accused of spying and the unauthorised publication of data.

His provisional arrest, however, was lifted on Monday evening. He was released "due to a lack of grounds for detention", police said. They took into account both his age and his co-operation.

1000 politicians, journalists, and celebrities were hacked. We are talking everything here. Emails, private chats, internal communications and other data. So where is one post, story, tweet or anything revealing any of the juicy details that must be contained in this hack.

How can you arrest someone for a hack this big, charge them with spying, get a confession and then release them? Does he have a deadman switch setup with really damaging information? Is he really just a pawn and they are using him to get the real hackers? What is going on here?

a reply to: LookingAtMars

You never know, if he keeps his head down, stays out of further trouble, and does well in school, the security services might even offer him a job somewhere down the line; the kids has skills, no doubt,

German Hacker Caught: “Acted Alone” Say German Investigators

He has been released on the condition that he does not leave his parents’ house and continues to cooperate, the Guardian reports, citing Georg Ungefug, a spokesman for the central office for fighting internet crime in Wiesbaden, who described him as having “extensive knowledge of computers”, with no official qualifications, but in possession of “considerable interest and a lot of time” to carry out his attack.

So it's more along the lines of released on his own recognizance.

it will be interesting to hear further details as they become available.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

Self taught at that. Maybe that is the answer he is working for them now. Just seems strange he didn't do a little time in jail.

originally posted by: BomSquad

German Hacker Caught: “Acted Alone” Say German Investigators

He has been released on the condition that he does not leave his parents’ house and continues to cooperate, the Guardian reports, citing Georg Ungefug, a spokesman for the central office for fighting internet crime in Wiesbaden, who described him as having “extensive knowledge of computers”, with no official qualifications, but in possession of “considerable interest and a lot of time” to carry out his attack.

So it's more along the lines of released on his own recognizance.

it will be interesting to hear further details as they become available.

Thanks, I should have made that clear in the OP. They have not dropped any charges. Still who gets charged with spying and then gets released on an O.R. bond?

This whole hacking thing the past week stinks...it is sanctioned. ?

a reply to: lightedhype

I think the DarkLord hack may be sanctioned to cover up what must be a lot of damning information that was released in the German hack.

It's not such a big hack when it's just the Germans . A big hack would be on the EU , the epp or Junkers commission for example . Maybe using that or similar knowledge contributed to catching him making under informed schoolboy errors

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Does he have a deadman switch setup with really damaging information?

Either that or some juicy bits on senior Police or the Judiciary?

originally posted by: DoctorBluechip
It's not such a big hack when it's just the Germans . A big hack would be on the EU , the epp or Junkers commission for example . Maybe using that or similar knowledge contributed to catching him making under informed schoolboy errors

There must be EU and Britex info in the hack considering Angela Merkel and others internal political party communications, letters, emails, invoices, chat transcripts, and more were dumped.

It's not a big hack because the details of what is in the hack have not come to light.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

He will be working for them soon...wait until the dust settles and that's fine..

a reply to: LookingAtMars
You certainly fail to take into consideration the words schoolboy and underage. I don't know which country you come from but other countries have very strict laws on being over a certain age to be held responsible. Except for murder.

a reply to: crayzeed

He's 20 years old. He is not underage.

a reply to: crayzeed

I can find other hackers I am sure that really were underage and charged as adults. You may be right about Germany, don't really know about that. Remember though he was charged with SPYING!

It says what country I am from to the left

Well you, now tell me why Gary Mckinnon was not charged in the UK (don't say America wanted to deport him to prosecute) for hacking NASA, FBI etc. The UK could have prosecuted him but didn't. He didn't even get a slap on the wrist. It is not always black and white, other factors come into play which probably no one will ever know about.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Way I see it is the kid did the world a favour, so did Gary an autistic guy from here the UK and the gung ho idiot's in the US wanted to extradite him and lock him up for the rest of his life as an EXAMPLE.
These are kid's, spying can mean anything from looking at someone paper over there shoulder to genuine international espionage.
What the real value of these kid's is well.
Gary showed that idiot's had not even pass worded there servers or left them with a default pass word, this kid is no different they highlight flaws and ACTUALLY minimize the damage because if they can get into that data from there bedroom's then what the hell can state funded cyber warfare centers do and if they have accessed this data then what have those Chinese, Russian, I.S., Iranian and Nork hackers done.

Do you think putting this kid behind bars is going to deter them, I think not.
Now had these committed harm to others, stolen money online as plenty of Kenyan hackers are constantly doing to people then that is a far more serious matter but in the case of these kid's fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me.
While it would be going too far to say they deserve to be rewarded for being naughty boy's they do deserve to be recognized for showing up poor security that CAN and WILL and probably already HAS been bypassed and not only by them, the professional's probably did not leave a trail but these amateurs no matter how good they are have.

So they do not deserve to be punished but the idiot's that made the poor security OR the idiot's that cut funding and let there security become out of date DO need to be punished and made examples of and they know it which is why they want to deflect the blame for these flaws upon the kid's that hack into those system's, this is NOT the same as coming into your house even if that is how they want to portray it.

a reply to: crayzeed

The biggest hack of NASA ever at the time (or so they said). He did go through a lot, but you do have a point there.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Your right, I am glad the 20 year old young man didn't get locked up, same with Gary. I don't wish that on anyone. I just want some details from the information that was in the hack.

Seemed strange someone admits to charges of spying and hacking and gets released. Here in the US they almost always put you in the Prison Industrial System if they can.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

It's an interesting subject especially as most of us will have had our own PC's hacked at some point and been none the wiser, many hackers are little more than voyeurs wanting to see into other people's private affairs but we are members of a conspiracy web site and believe it or not while I doubt either of us are hackers there will likely be quite a few members here that are.
The type that make me angry like I say are the identity thieves and money hackers that are constantly stealing from people.
Also if a malicious intent can be shown behind this type of hacking - or invasion of individual's privacy then that should carry a punishment, cyber stalkers are also often hackers and they tend to be less than nice people so no one would feel much sympathy for them.
So there is actually a very good argument that I am also wrong in that I made a blanket statement based on opinion but in a fact a case by case study of such crimes should always be carried out.