Belgium police have identified a member of the Anonymous Belgium collective while investigating an arson case at a local bank.

The Anonymous member is a 35-year-old man from Roeselare, Belgium, was arrested after throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Crelan Bank office in Rumbeke, back in 2014.

According to ZDnet, the hacker has been exposed after dropping USB drive on the ground while throwing the Molotov cocktail.

The analysis of the content of the USB drive allowed the authorities to identify the man. Court documents refer to the hacktivist as a Brecht S., the police raided his house and investigated into his computer and electronic devices revealing a long cybercrime activity.

The member of Anonymous was also involved in DDoS attacks against online banking system of the Crelan Bank that shut down the portal on numerous occasions.

Brecht explained that he attacked the bank because its officials refused to meet with him following the disappearance of €300,000 from his mother’s bank account following the divorce from his father. The attack was a revenge for what has happened to his mother.

The man also stated that he was experiencing a difficult period at the time and was involved in drugs.

According to the prosecutors, the man is an active member of Anonymous Belgium and Cyber Crew hacking groups, he was involved in numerous operations of the collectives of hackers, including one aimed at FIFA, the international soccer/football federation.

Brecht also blackmailed some organizations threatening them of DDoS attacks, in one case the victim was a restaurant. The hacker shut down the website of the restaurants several times with DDoS attacks and asked for a ransom payment to halt the attacks.

The police also identified a co-conspirator, a 44-year-old man from Bruges. The hacker was also a member of a cyber criminal gang and had exchanged hacking tools with Brecht.

Brecht S. was already sentenced to three years in prison for throwing the molotov cocktail, along with the other defendant he was also fined for 1,200 euro.

“A 35-year-old man from Roeselare has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison because he hacked the website of Crelan and took it offline for hours.” reported the Belgian news site Het Laatste Nieuws. “ Crelan received three thousand euros in compensation. The defendant also extorted a pizzeria by laying down the website and asking for ransom. Another hacker from Bruges was fined 1,200 euros.”

HLN reported that Brecht received an 18 months prison sentence for cybercrimes he committed and was ordered to pay €3,000 to Crelan Bank as compensation for damages caused by the DDoS attacks.

Brecht’s co-conspirator has not been sentenced to prison.

Pierluigi Paganini