A hacktivist took over the news program of the Netherlands national broadcaster on the night of January 29. The gunman, armed with a large revolver and silencer, demanded airtime on NOS-TV. He also claimed to have possession of a radioactive bomb. The hacker handed a note to a producer in which he also claimed to have an army of 98 cyberattackers ready to strike. The dramatic video above shows his arrest as armed police storm the newsroom with their guns drawn. It’s unclear at this point what the hackers long-game strategy was. In the note he gave to a producer, it stressed that if authorities did what he said, no staff at the station would be hurt. According to NOS, while he waited in the studio, the gunman talked to a security guard, he offered some idea into what he wanted to say on air, telling the guard, “there are big world issues that we want to bring out.”
Dutch police storming the newsroom.
A news editor at the station, Marcel Gelauff, said the incident was “shocking and bizzare” adding it’s “difficult to stop someone with a weapon.” The gun was later revealed to be fake, reports the BBC. The hacker, 19, is facing charges of making a threat and taking hostages. Despite his claims, authorities in the Netherlands believe that he was acting on his own.
