Coleraine Man Sentenced For Cybercrime

A 25-year-old man has been sentenced for his involvement in a large-scale cybercrime attack. Andrew Kelly from the Coleraine area pleaded guilty to six counts under the Computer Misuse Act and one count under the Fraud Act in June.

At Antrim Crown Court, Kelly was sentenced to 16 months in prison, which was suspended for four years. He was also ordered to comply with a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) for three years.

The investigation into Kelly's activities was led by the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Cyber Crime department, with support from the National Crime Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The focus of the investigation was a credential stuffing attack against a multi-international sports brand company that occurred in April 2020. The attack resulted in the compromise of 277,000 user accounts. Detective Inspector McCracken of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Cyber Crime Centre said: "Today's sentencing is the result of a complex investigation conducted by investigators and technical forensic officers from the Police Service's Cyber Crime team, with support from law enforcement partners.

"It should send a clear message to those involved in this type of crime that they will be vigorously pursued and brought before the courts to face the consequences of such cyber criminality.

"A credential stuffing attack is a type of cyber-attack that uses automated tools in conjunction with account credentials to try to gain unauthorised access to user accounts and is based on the assumption that people reuse usernames and passwords across multiple services.

"Our partners at the National Cyber Security Centre provide password guidance and other aspects of cyber security at www.ncsc.gov.uk"