Argentine Police Arrest ‘Superhacker’

A 19-year-old suspected of making $50,000 (£31,500) a month through cyber crime has been arrested in Buenos Aires.

It is believed the teenager, who is thought to be living with his father, a computer expert, was leading a group of hackers who targeted international money transfer and gambling websites, reports AP.

Police cyber crime crackdown

To prevent him from deleting any data, the police took out the power to the neighbourhood when they raided the suspect’s house.

Law enforcement agencies have not revealed the name of the suspect. Six others are believed to be related to the case, which involves use of malware, and management of large botnets to siphon off data.

“Internet users were victims of a malware virus that the hacker hosted in a server for downloading online gaming applications,” said a ministry statement.

It is believed the bots were used for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on gaming sites, a common tactic, especially when related to extortion.

Police began the investigation into the hacking, codenamed Operation Zombie, in 2012, after a hosting company complained its servers had been breached by the attackers.

In the UK, last week saw the arrest of 12 men as part of a police investigation into a cyber fraud attempt on a Santander bank.

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