Six weeks of community service for Utrecht student of Information Science

The 21-year-old student had made tens of thousands of euros from producing malicious software programmes that can spread viruses. In addition, he was in possession of the credit card information of 42 people.

The man was also unconditionally sentenced to 12 days of prison. However, since he has already served it in remand, he doesn't have to go to jail. The Public Prosecution Service had demanded a year and a half.

The student was arrested by officers during a lecture in the Koningsberger building last year. The Information Science programme only knew what was going on after the sentence was announced at the end of last month.

Intellectual challenge
In court, the student stated that he mainly saw "an intellectual challenge" in the development of the software. His actions would not have been aimed at making money from criminal activities. From messages on his phone, however, it appears that the student was indeed aware of what the products he sold were used for.

The court found that, given the seriousness of the facts, the student was actually eligible for an unconditional sentence. Because the student did not have a criminal record, was still quite young (19 and 20) when he crossed the line, and has his life as a university student on track, he was sentenced to community service. He must also participate in a programme for penalised young hackers.