Telegraaf must rectify the article about Kaspersky anti-virus company

De Telegraaf must rectify an article in which he wrote about alleged hacking to the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab. The Amsterdam judge ruled on Monday in an interlocutory proceeding that the Russian company had filed against TMG, the newspaper's publisher. Within three days, a correction must be made in the newspaper and on the De Telegraaf website.

In a February 3 article, the paper writes that self-proclaimed cyber-expert Rian van Rijbroek claimed he had hacked into Kaspersky's network. She would have done it on behalf of the security services. However, the company reported that the network had never been broken, and after publication, Van Rijbroek denied once saying it. Kaspersky felt that the article had suffered reputation damage

"No registration or note"

The publication was "illegal," concludes the judge. The journalists "made it improbable" that Van Rijbroek had actually made the statements in the article. They could not show any blows, notes or other evidence that could support that. Telegraaf had not further investigated Van Rijbroek's alleged allegations and did not ask Kaspersky for an answer

TMG argued in defense that the tone of the article would show that statements were not serious. The judge rejected this statement: "Although the tone is clear and questions are raised as to the veracity of Van Rijbroek's statements, the text also contains indications that Van Rijbroek must be taken seriously." take an "ambivalent image". Provenance with readers.

On Monday evening, the correction was not yet visible on the De Telegraaf site. Also the original article can not be found online.

Van Rijbroek earlier in discredit

Incidentally, Van Rijbroek was discredited by his statements on television, which, according to experts, was nonsense. A book on cybersecurity, which she wrote with former PvdA minister Willem Vermeend, was also pulled off the shelves by the publisher. Parts of the book were almost literally taken from other sources.