Suspended sentence for County Derry man convicted of cyber-crime related offences against multi-international sports brand

A 25-year-old man was sentenced at Antrim Crown Court today, Friday, October 18, for cyber-crime related offences.

Andrew Kelly from Willowfield Avenue in Coleraine had previously in June pleaded guilty to six counts under the Computer Misuse Act and one count under the Fraud Act.

Today, Kelly was sentenced to serve a period of 16 months in prison which was suspended for four years. He is also subject to a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) for three years.

The investigation was led by the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Cyber Crime department, with assistance from the National Crime Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

It focused on a large-scale credential stuffing attack against a multi-international sports brand company during April 2020 that 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”