Yesterday, Wednesday 24 November, a Merseyside man has been jailed for selling stolen personal data following an investigation by officers from the North West Regional Cyber Crime Unit.
Jack Clements, aged 21 of Kirkby was jailed for eight months at Liverpool Crown Court today after pleading guilty to selling personal data in exchange for cryptocurrency.
Officers searched Clements’ home address back in March this year after being alerted to his illegally activity online. A number of devices were seized and after being forensically examined, were found to contain stolen customer databases.
Detective Inspector Chris McClellan from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit said, “Today’s sentence will ensure Clements cannot continue with this kind of criminal activity.
“Our Cyber Crime Team remain committed to pursuing and identifying anyone involved in this kind of crime and ensuring they are investigated fully and brought before the courts.”
Police urge the public to help protect themselves from becoming a victim of cyber-crime by following some simple advice:
- Check if your personal data (email and phone numbers) has been included in previous data breaches by visiting www.haveibeenpwned.com
- If you discover you have been breached, don’t panic. Change your passwords on the compromised accounts and ensure they are new strong separate password for each
- Use a strong and separate password for your email account
- Create strong passwords using two random words
- Save your passwords in your browser – this is safer than using weak passwords or the same password for each site
- Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA)
- Update your devices
- Back up your data
- Visit https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberaware/home for help with picking secure passwords.
Image credit: Alesia Kozik
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