Photojournalist convicted in data theft

A 22 year old freelance 112 photo journalist from Drunen has been found guilty of computer intrusion after he found login details of a secure system online, used it to log in to the system and then spread the information. The court in Oost-Brabant sentenced him to 80 hours of community service, 40 of which are conditionally suspended. The suspect found user names and passwords for the National Crisis Management System online. This system coordinates the deployment of public services during disasters and other incidents. The man used the login details to access the system several times. He made screenshots of a page containing information about an incident in the prison in Vught in 2014 and shared this with a WhatsApp group. The man's lawyer argued that the National Crisis Management System can not be called a secure system because his client found the login details, along with instructions on how to log in, on public websites. He also argued that there was no "intrusion" as his client was not denied access.The suspect told the court that he logged on and looked around out of curiosity. The court listed the following facts: The suspect is not employed by the government, for which the National Crisis Management System is intended. He did not have permission to log on to the system. He stated that he understood that the system is not intended to be accessible to everyone. According to the court, the man should therefore have known that he was not allowed to use the login details he found. The National Crisis Management System can be classified as a secure system because it requires an account and corresponding password to be accessed. The court ruled that mistakes made by other people by being sloppy about protecting their login details does not give the suspect license to use them and gain access to the system. The fact that the 22 year old photographer shared the information he obtained on WhatsApp played a big role in the sentencing. This created a very real risk that the information would be spread further. The court also took into account that the man has no prior convictions and has already suffered great negative consequences of the criminal case - he was fired from his job. The court also took into account that, given the man's hobby as a 112-photographer and manager of a news site, he is likely to misstep and illegally obtain information illegally again. The court therefore added the conditional community service to his sentence, to prevent him from being tempted.