Threats · 42m ago
Dutch police arrested a 24-year-old man in Amsterdam on September 15 whom Brian Krebs identified as Pepijn van der Stap, and the FBI said he was an alleged leader of ShinyHunters, the extortion crew blamed for attacks on more than 140 organizations. The arrest also followed the group’s claim to have breached FBI systems earlier this month.
Police said they found a lot of information on his laptop, and U.S. and Dutch officials said the seizure could yield more leads on the rest of the group. That matters because ShinyHunters has built its work around stealing data from cloud and third-party environments and then threatening to publish it, so one arrest can expose infrastructure, names, and methods beyond a single case.
For organizations that rely on SaaS providers, vendors, or other shared services, the exposure is not limited to the detained suspect. If the seized devices and any cooperating witnesses point back to common access paths or reused infrastructure, this arrest could accelerate victim notifications and follow-on arrests across unrelated breaches.
3 sources covering this story
FBI to ShinyHunters: 'We know how to find you'
Federal cops have 'a very particular set of skills'
Dutch police arrest ShinyHunters hacker accused of planning two murders | TechCrunch
Dutch police said the hacker, arrested for being part of the ShinyHunters cybercriminal gang, had plans to organize the murder of two people on his laptop.
Alleged ShinyHunters leader arrested in the Netherlands
The arrest of a 24-year-old man in Amsterdam, which occurred a week before ShinyHunters hacked the FBI, marks a major turning point for law enforcement’s push to track down the group’s members.
Part of the PlainSec briefing for 2026-09-29