By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentine police say they have arrested an alleged 19-year-old hacker on suspicion of leading a gang of hackers who targeted international money transfers and gambling websites.
Named “the superhacker”, the teenager was making $50,000 a month, working from his bedroom police say. The teenager, whose identity has not been revealed, is the son of an information systems engineer. Police have been following the teenager for over a year.
Argentine police raided the home of the young man on September 13th in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Cristobal. The arrest operation shut down the power in the entire neighborhood to prevent the deletion of sensitive data.
Police raiding the teenager’s residence found that the young man had set up a “technological cave” with high-capacity computers which he used as a base to administer his online fraud network. Police seized electronic equipment, including cables, routers and over 14 hard drives. Officials identified six more people who were involved in the criminal network.
The arrest of the 19-year-old comes as part of Operation Zombie, an extensive police manhunt which began in 2012 when a businessman providing hosting services for personal web pages said that a hacker was remotely entering the servers to intercept monetary transfers.
Argentina’s chief prosecutor, Graciela Gils Carbo, ordered a federal investigation, which found that the same person was stealing from money transfers and online gaming sites. A Security Ministry statement said, “Internet users were victims of a ‘malware’ virus that the hacker hosted in a server for downloading online gaming applications.”
It was called Operation Zombie because the suspected hacker carried out a “denial of service” attack that used a network of thousands of “zombie” computers to overload the server, making it impossible for the users to access their accounts around the time of the attack. This would let him divert the money unnoticed and avoid alerting victims to an illegal money transfer.
The young man is being accused of three crimes, and if convicted of all, could be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.
For more information please see:
Al Jazeera – Argentina arrests 19-year-old ‘super-hacker’ – 14 September 2013
RT News – Argentina arrests teen ‘superhacker’ for stealing $50,000 a month – 14 September 2013
The Telegraph – Argentinian ‘super-hacker’ arrested over online scams – 14 September 2013
BBC – Argentina arrests teen hacker who netted $50,000 a month – 13 September 2013
Univision Noticias – Hacker que robaba 50 mil dólares al mes fue capturado en Argentina – 13 September 2013
