- 19 year old Argentine hacker arrested by police suspected of stealing $600k from s of online gambling and money transfer sites.
- The hacker used a malware virus to access s computers combined with DDoS attacks to prevent them accessing s while the theft was taking place.
- Police raids arrested 6 other accomplices in Buenos Aires and Rosario.
In Argentina, police have arrested a 19 year-old hacker who had been stealing an estimated $50,000 a month from victims active in online gaming and money transfers. To preserve computer evidence, police shut off power to an entire neighborhood while they made their arrest. 653v6k
As a first step, the hacker used a malware virus that was transferred to s ing gambling software. The youth then used denial of service attacks (DDoS) to prevent s accessing their s while he was stealing their money.
In a statement from the Security Ministry, Chief Prosecutor Graciela Gils Carbo said: “Internet s were victims of a 'malware’ virus that the hacker hosted in a server for ing online gaming applications.”
The DDoS attack was mounted using a network of thousands of “zombie” computers to saturate the payments platform.
The unnamed hacker is the son of an information systems engineer. He was detained at his father’s home in Buenos Aires. Police raids were also carried out in other locations in the city and in Rosario, a town 200 miles North of the capital. Six other people were arrested as part of the operation.
Argentine police have not released the hacker’s name, or any details about the gaming companies affected by his actions. In total the police estimate $600k was stolen.
There have been players’ laptops compromised at EPT Barcelona and other EPT stops.