DIVD’s response regard the involvement of a DIVD volunteer in a major data theft case
24 Feb 2023 - DIVD
On Thursday, February 23, at around 5:00 PM, news broke of the arrest of three young Dutch hackers in connection with a significant data theft and extortion case. One of them was an active volunteer for DIVD in the past year. We are deeply shocked by the facts that have come to light.
The mission of DIVD is to make the internet safer. The allegations against the volunteer are entirely at odds with this mission. It should be clear that we had no knowledge of any criminal activities by the volunteer, nor did we suspect he was involved in such activities.
As soon as we learned of his arrest, we formed a crisis team, blocking the volunteer’s account and denying him access to DIVD systems. Shortly after that, we launched an internal investigation to determine if DIVD knowledge or resources were used in violation of the DIVD code of conduct. No concrete evidence of such abuse was found. DIVD is not part of the police investigation, and they have not requested us for any data.
Volunteering for DIVD as a helpful hacker is never compatible with cybercrime. We have suspended the volunteer’s membership.
More than 100 volunteers are active as helpful hackers at DIVD. They have all endorsed our code of conduct. Anyone who violates this code is immediately suspended and is no longer welcome at DIVD. We have accomplished a great deal together over the past years, and we are very sorry that the actions of one volunteer have now cast a shadow on our work.
Last modified: 24 Feb 2023 11:48 CET