Ethical hacker not to be 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 did penetrate the account, but did not commit any criminal offences.

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

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

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. that have been developed in case law to go free, “the Public Prosecution Service told de Volkskrant.