The hacker who, with the help of another person, hacked into the National Lottery database in November 2016 has been sentenced to 9 months of jail time.
The hacker Anwar Batson was arrested in May 2017 and accused of accessing information of 9 million customer accounts (the database contained 9,000,000 records) on the Lottery website. The investigation was carried out by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
See: Man gets 25 years for hacking lottery computers and winning $2.2 million
Batson, a resident of Lancaster Road, Notting Hill, West London, provided the username and password of the Birmingham based lottery player Idris Kayode Akinwunm who stole £13 from the target’s account and sent Baston £5.
However, during the court hearing Batson denied that he was involved in the hack and maintained that he was, in fact, a victim of online trolling while his devices itself have been hacked.
The 29-years old Batson was arrested before he could steal any more money from the website. He was sentenced on January 10, 2020, at Southwark Crown Court, after pleading guilty to one fraud charge and four breaches of Computer Misuse Act 1990.
During the court hearing, it was revealed that Baston used a very commonly available hacking tool Sentry MBA, which requires the creation of a file to launch an attack.
On the website, Batson used the nick Rosegold and claimed that he can help them make quick cash through the hacking tool that could compromise the Camelot system that runs the Lottery website.
The 21-years old Akinwunm of Kingston Road received 8 months and the 27-years old Daniel Thompson of Millfield Avenue, Newcastle, received 4 months jail time at the Birmingham Crown Court. Both are accused of attacking the victim’s web domain with a bombardment of log-in attempts to access customer accounts while the file that launched the attack was created by Batson.
Upon searching Baston’s apartment, the officials discovered proof of communication between Rosegold and the two partners in crime regarding hacking, buying, and selling of private data, login credentials, and configuration files including a chat with Akinwunm regarding stealing £13. They also found clothing items dispatched to Rosegold on the same address.
See: This Dude Hacked Lottery Computers to Win $14.3M Jackpot in US
According to Andrew Shorrock, the National Crime Agency’s senior investigation officer, even a small level cybercrime can have a drastic impact on the victim.
“No one should think cybercrime is victimless or that they can get away with it. The NCA will pursue and identify offenders and any conviction can be devastating to their futures” Shorrock said.
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