Hacker stole unreleased Coldplay and Rexha tracks

A cyber hacker named Skylar Dalziel has pleaded guilty to stealing unreleased music from well-known artists, including Coldplay, Shawn Mendes, and Bebe Rexha. This incident has raised significant concerns in the music industry about the security of artists' work. According to the City of London Police, Dalziel made approximately £42,000 by selling these stolen tracks on the dark web, a part of the internet that is often associated with illegal activities. The prosecutor, Richard Partridge, stated that Dalziel 'selfishly used their music to make money for herself by selling it on the dark web. ' The 22-year-old, who resides in Luton, admitted to 11 copyright offenses at Luton Crown Court. As a result, she was sentenced to 21 months in prison, which has been suspended for 24 months. This means that she will not serve time in jail immediately but must adhere to certain conditions for the next two years. Det Con Daryl Fryatt, from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, emphasized the seriousness of the crime, stating, 'Stealing copyrighted material for your own financial gain is illegal. It jeopardizes the work of artists and the livelihoods of the people who work with them to create and release their music. ' Dalziel managed to access the music by illegally breaking into cloud storage accounts linked to the artists. The thefts came to light when Sony Music Entertainment discovered that a cloud account owned by the artist Upsahl had been compromised. They reported this breach to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in June 2021. Police reported that around forty unreleased tracks had been extracted and were being sold online. The IFPI and the Recording Industry Association of America identified an account on an online forum that was selling unreleased music from various artists, which was linked to Dalziel. Bebe Rexha, whose real name is Bleta Rexha, is known for her energetic pop hits like 'I'm Good (Blue)' with David Guetta and 'Heart Wants What It Wants. ' The police arrested Dalziel on January 9, 2023, and seized three drives containing a staggering 291,941 music tracks. They also found a spreadsheet that showed she had sold tracks to customers, and her PayPal and bank accounts revealed that she had received £42,049 from April 2021 to January 2023. Some of this money was transferred to bank accounts in the United States, and the City of London Police is working with Homeland Security Investigations to identify the individuals linked to these accounts. Dalziel pleaded guilty to 11 counts of making for sale an article without the license of the copyright's owner, one count of transferring criminal property, and three counts of acquiring, using, or possessing criminal property. In addition to her suspended sentence, she was also sentenced to complete 180 hours of unpaid work. Det Con Fryatt stated that the sentencing 'sends a clear message that we have the ability and tools to locate cyber criminals and hold them to account for their actions. ' This case highlights the ongoing challenges that artists face in protecting their work in the digital age.