ShinyHunters suspect conspired to commit two murders, Dutch police claim
A 24-year-old man, Pepijn van der S., who was arrested on September 15 in Amsterdam on suspicion of being part of the hacking group ShinyHunters, is also suspected of attempting to solicit two murders. Several data carriers were seized and are being investigated, police reported.
ShinyHunters is the jacking group that claimed responsibility for the February 2026 attack on telecom provider Odido, when the data of more than 6 million customers was stolen. It has also been involved with the data breaches at Pornhub and Ticketmaster. The police added that further arrests have not been ruled out.
Van Der S. was convicted in 2023 for hacking into corporate information systems, blackmail, extortion, and money laundering. He was ordered to serve a three-year prison sentence, with time reduced if he fulfilled various conditions. He was working as the offensive security lead at Amsterdam cybersecurity firm Neo Security, the company told Reuters. Dutch forensic investigators were at the company’s office on September 15, the same day Van der S. was taken into custody.
After the arrest, investigators found a lot of information on his laptop, including details about two murders that were allegedly to be carried out abroad. “There are indications that the suspect ordered those killings,” the police wrote. “He is therefore also suspected of attempting to solicit two murders.”
The officers clarified that that is a separate case from the investigation into the ShinyHunters. The suspect is currently being held under full restrictions.
Publicly, Van der S. later spoke out against hacking and other cybercrimes. As a defendant, he argued that he has psychological issues from a difficult childhood.
“Since last year, this cybercriminal and his co-conspirators have allegedly breached more than 140 organizations and taken at least 70 million dollars in extortion payments,” said Brett Leatherman, on behalf of the FBI. “They often target third-party vendors in cloud-based platforms, stealing sensitive data and extorting victims with threats to publish it.” The American agency said it cooperated with the Dutch criminal investigation.
“Absolutely everybody I talked to is flabbergasted,” said Benjamin Korper, who runs Neo Security. He screened Van der S. and approved his hiring, despite prior convictions for extortion and data theft.
“My journey hasn’t been a straight line. I’ve seen security from both sides of the terminal, an experience that taught me hard lessons but ultimately gave me clarity: knowledge is for building and protecting, not breaking,” Van der S. writes on his website. “My past shaped my conviction that to build the strongest defense, you must deeply understand the offense.”