The Hague | He was connected to the Twitter account of US President Donald Trump: a Dutch hacker, who had discovered in October the password of the president of the first world power, is “not liable to prosecution”, said Wednesday the Ministry Dutch public.
“This is the conclusion of the prosecution after an investigation by the high technology crimes team of the national police,” he said in a statement.
Victor Gevers, whose name was revealed by the Dutch media, had himself managed to discover the password of the American president, affirms the public prosecutor who presents him as an “ethical hacker”.
“After having managed to connect, the Dutchman tried to contact the American authorities in order to point out to them the vulnerability” of access to the president’s account, according to the prosecution.
“He identified himself in this way and gave them advice on how to remedy this vulnerability,” he added.
The 44-year-old later told the Dutch police that he wanted to verify the strength of Donald Trump’s password, wishing to avoid a hack of his account just before the elections, because of “important issues”, according to Crown.
The White House had denied the hacker’s connection, while Twitter said it had no evidence of logging in from outside.
“In the Netherlands, piracy is liable to prosecution,” recalls the prosecution, which explains why an investigation had been opened in the Netherlands against the Dutch pirate.
However, he considers that in certain “special circumstances”, prosecution is not appropriate.
According to the Dutch authorities, the hacker has in fact accessed Donald Trump’s Twitter account, but “respecting criteria developed by case law” and which make him “an ethical hacker”. And he didn’t tweet pretending to be the US president.
“The American authorities have been informed” of the results of the Dutch investigation, concludes the prosecution.
Victor Gevers had recounted his adventure in an interview published on October 22 in the monthly Vrij Nederland.
He says he tried several passwords like “MakeAmericaGreatAgain” before entering “maga2020”, the contraction of Donald Trump’s slogan that gave him access to the account, he told the Dutch newspaper.