A Rotterdam teenager who hacked into 2,000 computers last year and placed a stolen school French exam paper online, has been jailed for 13 months, 12 months suspended.

The 19-year-old was also given 120 hours community service. He will not have to serve jail time because he spent over four months in prison ahead of his trial and may now be entitled to compensation, the NRC says.

Judges also rejected the public prosecution department’s demand that he be sent to psychiatric clinic for treatment. However, he has been banned from using computers for everything but school work.

Malware

The man, who was arrested last October, hacked into computers in both the Netherlands and abroad using malware to access files. He stole items from his victims’ computers, destroyed files and spread information using their Facebook profiles.

The case came to light after a teenage girl discovered naked photographs of herself on internet.

The investigation revealed that the young man had also uploaded a stolen copy of a French school exam earlier in the year. That publication led to dozens of school pupils being arrested and, ultimately, the Ibn Ghaldoun school in Rotterdam, being closed down.