Teenage Talk Talk hacker Daniel Kelley warned he faces jail
'Custody is inevitable and you should prepare yourself,' Judge Paul Worsley tells 19-year-old Daniel Kelley after he pleads guilty to 11 charges of hacking
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Your support makes all the difference.A teenager has been warned he faces jail for his involvement in the multi-million pound TalkTalk data hack.
“Custody is inevitable and you should prepare yourself," Judge Paul Worsley told 19-year-old Daniel Kelley after he pleaded guilty to 11 charges of hacking, blackmail, fraud and money laundering at London’s Old Bailey.
They included hacking into TalkTalk to get customer data and demanding a payment of 465 Bitcoins worth around £285,000 at today's rate in October last year.
The Crown accepted the pleas and said a further eight charges will lie on file as it was not in the "public interest" to pursue a trial, the prosecution said.
The defendant of Heol Dinbych, Llanelli, South Wales, was remanded on conditional bailed until sentencing on 6 March.
Kelley admitted five charges of blackmail, including targeting staff at TalkTalk over stolen data that was "of great concern to those affected", said prosecutor Robert Davies.
He also admitted two computer hacking offences, fraud-related crimes and money-laundering, the court heard.
They included hacking into the website of Coleg Sir Gar, a Welsh college where he was a student, which had the effect of keeping doctors waiting for results.
The defendant accepted that on 4 November last year he offered to supply computer files containing details of the users of the TalkTalk website, Telecom Group Plc, JJ Fox Ltd and TAFE Queensland.
The court heard he possessed about 5,000 sets of credit card data which were "clearly of interest to those who want to commit fraud”, Mr Davies said.
He also posted on a "hacker type site", offering for sale or otherwise sensitive data, the court heard.
One of the blackmail charges related to a company RC Hobbies in Australia which makes remote controlled cars.
He demanded "with menaces" 15 Bitcoins, the court heard.
Adjourning for reports, Judge Paul Worsley told Kelley: "You are a young man of 19 with no previous convictions.
"I renew your bail on the same terms as before but I warn you of this: in any view these offences to which you have pleaded guilty, custody is inevitable and you should prepare yourself."
Speaking after the case Detective Chief Inspector Jason Tunn, from the Metropolitan Police's cyber crime unit called Kelley "a prolific and calculating cyber-criminal who has caused considerable damage, harm and loss; not only to those he directly blackmailed, but to the hundreds of thousands of customers of the companies whose personal details have either been stolen or used to try and extort money."
He said: “The fact that Kelley was taking part in the cyber-attack against TalkTalk whilst on police bail for other similar offences shows his total disregard for the law. Excellent digital forensic and investigative work by all the officers has shown that cyber criminals cannot hide themselves totally and we will do all we can to identify and prosecute them.
Two other men Matthew Hanley, 21, and Conner Douglas Allsopp, 19, are facing trial for hacking into TalkTalk and a series of other websites in July next year.
Kelley, Hanley and Allsopp were charged on 26 September following a investigation by the Met's Falcon Cyber Crime Unit into an alleged data theft from the TalkTalk website.
It is alleged Hanley and Allsopp gained unauthorised access in October 2015 to data and programmes on various other organisations' websites including Merit Badges as well as universities in Cambridge, Manchester, Sheffield and Bournemouth.
Two other suspects, a 16 year-old boy and a 19 year-old man, remain on police bail.
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