Spanish police have arrested a British nationwide accused of main an organized cybercrime group that broke into dozens of U.S. firms.
The unnamed British nationwide, aged 22, was arrested at Palma airport as he was about to depart the nation on a constitution flight to Naples, Spanish police confirmed in a press launch.
In an announcement, Spanish police stated the alleged hacker ringleader used phishing methods to steal passwords to interrupt into a minimum of 45 firms in the US, which allowed the theft of firms’ inside info and cryptocurrency. In accordance with the police, the accused hacker was in command of $27 million in cryptocurrency on the time of his arrest.
A video of the suspect’s arrest was posted by police on YouTube.
Spanish police didn’t identify the accused particular person or the cybercrime group he allegedly led. A spokesperson for the FBI declined to remark when reached by information.killnetswitch.
information.killnetswitch understands that the arrested particular person is the alleged chief of the group that masterminded the cyberattacks focusing on Twilio in 2022, in keeping with an individual with data of cybercrime operations.
The arrested suspect allegedly led a hacking group dubbed “0ktapus,” which twice broke into Twilio, an organization that gives calling and messaging companies to different firms. The months-long hacking spree throughout 2022 netted near 10,000 workers passwords that had been used to subsequently break into the networks of Twilio’s prospects. The gang focused over 100 Twilio prospects, together with DoorDash and Sign, utilizing phishing lures that had been designed to seem like Okta login pages, for which the group lends its identify.
information.killnetswitch isn’t naming the alleged suspect as it isn’t clear if he has but been charged with any crimes.
The arrest comes virtually two years after the 0ktapus gang first emerged as a cybercrime participant, underscoring the complexity of investigating some cybercrime teams.
The hackers are stated to be a part of a wider neighborhood of cybercriminals, dubbed “the Com” by researchers, which has emerged in recent times as a big nebulous community of principally younger adults that excels in social engineering and impersonation ways, similar to tricking workers into giving over their company passwords. In accordance with Cyberscoop, the FBI lately described the Com as a “very massive, expansive, disbursed group of people” stated to contain round a thousand individuals all over the world. A few of the Com’s actions have concerned the usage of bodily violence and threats, together with assaults towards sparring hackers.
These related to the Com, albeit by totally different group names and attributions, have been blamed for cyberattacks focusing on Las Vegas on line casino giants MGM and Caesars Leisure.
Earlier this 12 months, U.S. prosecutors charged a 19-year-old Florida resident with a number of counts of wire fraud, id theft and conspiracy. Safety reporter Brian Krebs linked the alleged hacker to the 0ktapus gang.
