Ethical hacker not prosecuted after hacking Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Ethical hacker Victor Gevers will not be prosecuted for hacking Donald Trump’s Twitter account. The Public Prosecution Service assumes that Gevers penetrated the account, but committed no criminal offenses.

The Public Prosecution thus concludes that Gevers does not need to be prosecuted, writes de Volkskrant . Gevers was questioned last month by the High Tech Crime team of the police after he alleged that he had penetrated the Twitter account of US President Trump in October . Gevers did this by simply guessing the password. The account was only password protected maga2020!and did not have two-step verification.

Until now, Gevers did not want to provide evidence for the ‘hack’, except for a number of screenshots, because that could be punishable. The Public Prosecution Service has now concluded that Gevers indeed did not act criminally and adhered to ‘special circumstances’. The hacker contacted various parties responsible for the security of the account, such as the Secret Service, the White House and Twitter itself. He also gave tips on how to make the account more secure.

In doing so, Gevers complied with the rules surrounding coordinated vulnerability disclosure, ” says the OM now that the investigation has been completed.” The OM assumes that the hacker actually penetrated Trump’s Twitter account, but met the criteria. which have been developed in case law to go free, “the Public Prosecution Service told de Volkskrant.