ShinyHunters Cyber Arrest
Dutch police arrest former hacker in connection with the ShinyHunters cyber-extortion investigation.
Anonymous
Dutch police arrested 24-year-old Pepijn van der Stap in an investigation into the ShinyHunters cyber-extortion group, and he is due to appear before a Rotterdam court. Van der Stap previously pleaded guilty to hacking and extorting companies and served prison time; he later became an offensive security lead at Neo Security. His employer said an initial review found no evidence that he targeted the company or its clients, and authorities have not confirmed his involvement in the Odido breach. Separately, investigators reportedly found material on his laptop that led them to suspect he solicited two killings abroad; authorities say this allegation is distinct from the ShinyHunters inquiry. The group steals and extorts corporate data and has recently claimed a breach of an FBI website and employee information.
Key Points
1
Van der Stap was arrested on September 15, when a Dutch tactical police unit raided the Amsterdam home he shared with his mother and seized electronic devices.
2
Before his 2023 conviction, Van der Stap used the online alias “Umbreon.” Reports noted that ShinyHunters later used the same Pokémon character in connection with an FBI website breach, though the character had also appeared in a 2020 website defacement before Van der Stap created his account.
3
Dutch police had asked the public to help identify a voice in a social-engineering call connected to the Odido breach. ShinyHunters reportedly said one of its members made the call, but DataBreaches reported that the voice was not Van der Stap’s.
4
SecurityWeek reported that the FBI jobs-site breach may have used a modified exploit for the Oracle PeopleSoft vulnerability CVE-2026-35273, which ShinyHunters had reportedly exploited as a zero-day in June.
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