A Dutch hacker has been arrested for trying to sell the personal information of almost every Austrian citizen

Dutch authorities arrested a hacker for obtaining and attempting to sell in May 2020 the personal data of almost every Austrian citizen, reports Reuters. This is almost 9 million data sets, which roughly corresponds to the population of Austria.

The 25-year-old accused was already known to international police, offering similar data sets from Italy, the Netherlands and Colombia. Dutch police have not announced the arrest until now so as not to hinder the investigation, which is still ongoing.

Authorities say the hacker posted the information on an Internet forum. The police, for their part, claim that the stash consists of registration data — important information that residents of the country must provide to the authorities. This includes full name, address and date of birth, but not financial information.

The police confirmed the veracity of the material, adding that “since this data was freely available on the Internet, it must absolutely be assumed that these registration data are, in full or in part, irrevocably in the hands of criminals.”