A group of Indonesian hackers have been nabbed by police for stealing IDR4.1 billion ($308,000) worth of airline tickets from one of the county’s largest online travel companies.
Tiket.com reported the cyber heist in November 2016 after a bulk allocation of tickets for budget airline Citilink Indonesia were stolen.
The group then allegedly sold the tickets to unsuspecting customers on Facebook.
Police arrested three 19-year olds and a person aged 27, and they could face 12 years in prison if convicted.
However, there could be a silver lining for the alleged ringleader.
Police said they are even considering recruiting the 19-year old who goes by the internet alias Haikal, according to news site Detik.com.
A police spokesman said his skills could be ‘beneficial to the country.’
The hacker’s attorney also told local press there had been offers to work abroad after hearing of his exploits.
It was also reported Haikal had previously hacked the Indonesian National Police website some time ago.
Citilink Indonesia said overall security and customer data was not compromised in the hack and was limited to the allocation of tickets given to the OTA.
