A London hacker stood before the Southwark Crown Court yesterday for accusations in illegally breaking into the accounts of the National Lottery. The 29-year-old Anwar Batson admitted to four charges of cyber crimes and is now facing jail time for his illicit actions.
The man was implementing Sentry MBA, which is one of the most commonly used software suites by cybercriminals. According to research conducted by the American telecommunications giant Verizon, Sentry MBA is frequently implemented for the purposes of the so-called credential stuffing attacks.
Hackers rely on this software to test the security of applications and websites by stuffing a huge number of stolen log-in credentials, such as usernames and passwords, against the app. In turn, this enables them to potentially find legitimate matches and take over user accounts.
What is worse, the software is free and broadly accessible, so it is not surprising that Batson chose to use it to hack the National Lottery accounts. The man committed four grave cyber offences that are punishable under the Computer Misuse Act of 1990.
Batson, who hails from Lancaster Road located in the UK capital’s Ladbroke Grove, remained silent during most of the court proceedings, only speaking when asked to confirm his name and confess to the four of the cyber crimes he had committed. The charges in question are punishable under sections 2(1)(b), 3A(2), and 3A(3) of the Computer Misuse Act.
The Londoner was also facing several other charges of fraudulent activities and of conspiring to commit fraud. Another charge under the same Act accused him of obtaining and using the above-mentioned hacking suite. However, he refused to admit his guilt on said charges.
The Prosecution Adjourned the Londoner’s Sentencing until January
The case was seen by Judge Michael Grieve who decided to suspend Batson’s sentencing until January 10th, 2020. Judge Grieve also requested reports into the Londoner’s cyber offences.
Batson was defended by barrister Daniel Kersh. The defence turned to the Court explaining that the accused is only 29 years old and has not been convicted of any other crimes in the past. Mr Kersh also explained that his client has been employed since the previous year.
As Casino Guardian previously wrote, Batson’s cyber crimes against the National Lottery date back as early as 2016. However, the accused obtained the Sentry MBA hacking software in the previous year. According to the prosecution, Baston then devised a plan to steal money from the accounts of the National Lottery. The defence requested a report to try and find another option but the custodial sentence.
Batson appeared in Southwark Crown Court in a white t-shirt and had his long hair tied in a ponytail. It was established that he initially faced accusations of conspiring with two other individuals but they ended up behind bars back in 2018.
The United Kingdom’s National Lottery is operated by the Camelot Group. The latter reportedly plunked down the hefty amount of £200,000 to investigate Batson’s attacks on its website as well as to increase its systems’ security levels. However, the young man denied the conspiring accusations, so these charges were put on file for the time being.
- Author
Olivia Cole
