Spanish police arrest 16-year old leader of hacker group in Europe-wide probe

Spanish Police Arrest 16-Year-Old Leader of KillSec Hacker Group in Major Probe

Details of the KillSec Hacker Group Investigation

BRUSSELS, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Spanish police said on Thursday they arrested a 16-year-old suspected to be the main operator of a hacker group called KillSec as part of a Europe-wide probe into around 1,000 ransomware attacks in two years.

Suspects and Arrests

Main Suspect

• The teenager arrested in the city of Alicante is a Romanian national, Spanish police said in a statement

Other Arrests and Extradition

• He is suspected of being the "administrator" of KillSec, said a spokesperson for Europol, the EU's law ​enforcement agency

• Police arrested two other people in their twenties, one in Britain and the other in Romania, the spokesperson added. An extradition request has been filed by Puerto Rico for the man arrested in Britain, she added

• A fourth person, a developer who turned 18 in August and so was a minor when some of the offences were committed, has also been identified but not arrested

KillSec's Modus Operandi

Exploiting Vulnerabilities

• KillSec "exploited software vulnerabilities and poorly secured access points, particularly to cloud storage," to copy sensitive information, Europol said in a statement

Ransom Demands

• KillSec then threatened the organisations with the publication of their data unless paid. "The group obtained substantial ransom payments," the statement said

Police Operations

International Raids

• Police raided eight houses in Spain, Greece, Romania and Britain and seized evidence and assets

Reporting Credits

(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Emma Pinedo; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)