British police have arrested seven teenagers and young people between the ages of 16 and 21, alleging links to the Lapsus$ hacker group. The BBC reports and adds that a 16-year-old boy from Oxford has been accused of being the leader of the group. It is not known if he is one of those who have since been released. Competing hackers had previously made his name, address and other personal information public, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The investigative authorities had reportedly been on his heels for a year. The boy was autistic, and at times he was so fast that you thought you were looking at an automated process. It is said that he is behind some Lapsus$ hacks, but he can’t relate to all of them.
“I thought I was playing”
After the name and address of the suspected hacker became public, both bbc What also Bloomberg on the spot and spoke with his mother and father. Both assured that they knew nothing of the activities of which their son is accused. He never talked about hacker attacks, but “he’s very good with computers and spends a lot of time on computers.” “I always thought he played,” the BBC quoted his father as saying. He announced that he now wants to keep it away from his computer. Competitors who went public with his name also claimed that he amassed 300 bitcoins (about $14 million currently) shortly after his attacks began.
The Lapsus$ group is comparatively new and has become more and more well known in recent weeks. It is said to be responsible for attacks on a Portuguese media group, Nvidia, Ubisoft, and most recently Microsoft and access management service provider Okta. Investigating authorities identified seven different suspected members of the group, Bloomberg reported ahead of the arrests. A teenager involved is said to live in Brazil. While the group was apparently very good at attacking businesses and hacking into their networks, they were not good at covering their tracks, according to observers. The group said goodbye this Wednesday to its Telegram channel until the end of March.
(mho)