This is a ridiculous story and the CEO of FreeHour, Zach Ciappara seems to me that is acting immaturely. I wonder why Lovin Malta, who is also a shareholder of the company didn’t advise Zach Ciappara to act in a different manner since obviously, his actions are not very contributory to the brand image of his company.
I think Zach should be the bigger man in this story, drop his case, pay the kids, go home and focus on growing his business instead of wasting his time chasing a bunch of computer geeks with the police. After all, they did him a big favour. I hope they arrive at an amicable settlement with each other.
Doesn’t he know how much pen testing costs if he had to engage a serious company to do it for them….which clearly they need. He should thank them and pay them.
There is so much more here than meets the eye. On what basis did they decide to inform the police?
GDPR: Was there a breach? Then they have to inform the relevant authority (not the police) within 72 hours of knowing.
Hacking: was this really a hack, the hackers informed them about the weakness
Blackmail: the moment somebody asks for a bounty they are in effect requesting police intervention.