FBI urges ShinyHunters members to turn themselves in after Dutch police arrest a suspected leader
Police say the 24-year-old from Amsterdam is also suspected of ordering two murders abroad. The group says it never intended to publish data stolen from the FBI.
Evidence: Independent reports. Security stories run only with a named disclosure or independent reporting behind them.
The FBI on Tuesday called on members of the ShinyHunters extortion group to come forward. The appeal came after Dutch National Police announced the arrest of a man the bureau describes as one of the group's alleged leaders. SecurityWeek identifies the suspect as Pepijn van der Stap, a 24-year-old from Amsterdam. He was arrested on September 15 while on probation for an earlier hacking and extortion sentence. According to Dutch police, information on his laptop included details of two murders that were to be committed abroad, and there are indications that he ordered them. The Rotterdam District Court ruled that he will stay in pre-trial detention for at least another 90 days, and police have not ruled out further arrests. The FBI says ShinyHunters and its alleged co-conspirators have breached more than 140 organizations since 2025 and collected at least $70 million in extortion payments. The group often targets third-party vendors and cloud platforms. SecurityWeek reports that ShinyHunters remained defiant after the arrest and said it never intended to publish the data it claims to have stolen from the FBI.