Trial of MPs hackers: "0rbit" confesses in court

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District court Alsfeld: The hearing took place in camera

Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa

The trial against a suspected hacker from Hessen, who is said to have hijacked online accounts of numerous politicians and celebrities and published their personal data, began on Wednesday with a statement from the defendant.

The 22-year-old confessed to the acts in full and spoke about them, said Chief Public Prosecutor Benjamin Krause from the Frankfurt Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT).

The accused has to answer in the Hessian Alsfeld before the juvenile jury court, among other things, for spying on and publishing private data.

The trial takes place without the press or spectators because the defendant was considered a young person at the time of the crime.

The process is special, also because of the large number of people affected, said Krause.

After talking about 1,000 victims in the run-up to the hearing, the public prosecutor's office is now assuming 1,500 victims.

It was initially unclear whether there will be a judgment on Wednesday.

The only other trial date so far is set for September 30th.

Password platform facilitated hacking attacks

The case caused a stir nationwide in early 2019.

According to investigators, the defendant was a student at the time and lived with his parents.

Out of anger about public statements made by his victims - including members of the Bundestag - he started collecting private data such as addresses, telephone and credit card numbers from them.

According to the indictment, he gained access to online profiles and bought stolen data online.

According to SPIEGEL research, the services of the Weleakinfo.com platform played a particularly important role.

Until it was shut down in January 2020, billions of access data such as passwords and e-mail addresses were offered for sale via this site for two euros per month.

In addition to the access data tapped via it, "0rbit" is said to have also used the function to reset a password in some cases in order to hack accounts of its victims.

On Twitter, the defendant, who is said to have been on the Internet under pseudonyms such as "0rbit" and "g0d", published the data step by step in a kind of "Advent calendar".

He is also said to have tried to blackmail victims with the publication

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