A cellular network hacker was denied leave to appeal his conviction and three-year sentence at the SCA yesterday.

The court upheld an order of the Gauteng High Court against Siegfried Salzmann, who was convicted at the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on counts of the contravention of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act after he hacked the Cell C network.

Salzmann was convicted on two counts and sentenced to a fine or 12 months’ imprisonment on count one and three years’ imprisonment on count three, notes a Cape Times report.

Salzmann, an IT remote access administrator, was employed at Cell C until three weeks prior to what was described as a ‘cyberattack’ against the network provider.

‘The invasion penetrated deeply into the system, and disconnected some 80% of it as a result of core network devices becoming non-functional,’ court papers said.

There were two issues for determination: whether leave to appeal to the SCA was properly granted and whether the appeal against conviction and sentence should be granted.

The SCA held that there were no special circumstances demanding the matter be heard.

Full Cape Times report (subscription needed)