According to a report by BBC UK, the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) auctioned off nearly £240,000 worth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies belonging to the teenage hacker Elliott Gunton, who allegedly hacked TalkTalk—a British telecoms service provider back in 2015.

The seized cryptocurrency was auctioned off in small batches and the entire process was handled by Wilsons Auctions—the largest auction group in the UK.

Lack of Security

For a majority of British internet users, the name TalkTalk represents a highly irresponsible internet service provider, whose lax security standards led to the leak of sensitive data to belonging to nearly 150,000 customers.

Due to the repeated hacks between 2014 to 2015, TalkTalk was fined for a total of £400,000 back in 2016 by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office. The fact that TalkTalk repeatedly failed to protect its customers also lost them nearly 250,000 customers.

During the hack, Elliott stole customer data which included information such as credit card details, banking information, home addresses, etc and sold them on the black market in exchange for cryptocurrency. He advertised his services and the sale of this data for $3,000 per person, paid in an equivalent amount of Bitcoin.

Elliot was 19 at the time of his arrest back in April 2018, but reportedly hacked TalkTalk’s servers when he was only 16. As a result of his crime, Elliot served 20 months in jail, with an additional three and a half years of community service. The court also ordered Elliot to pay back the £407,359 he had made and implemented a mandatory restriction on his internet and software use.

It was Elliot’s parents, Carlie and Jason, who originally helped him transfer the cryptocurrency from a compromised wallet that Elliot acquired during the hack. They are due to be sentenced at the same court as their son and recently pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property and perverting the course of justice.

Innocent or Otherwise?

Unfortunately, it seems shortly after being released from prison, Elliot has returned back to his old rhetoric of maintaining his innocence, tweeting the following:

Curiously, the tweet is made from the Twitter handle @Gambler. Typically original usernames like these are traded on underground markets including the dark web, Hackforums, and similar sites—this doesn’t exactly help Elliot in his claim to innocence.

Do you think Elliot is innocent? Or was his sentence justified? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Images are courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter.