Hacking group leader is Brit (16) ‘who earned almost 13 million euros and lives with his mother’ | Tech

London police arrested seven people this week on suspicion of involvement in the controversial hacking group. British police would not confirm whether the 16-year-old boy is one of the arrested suspects. It is clear that all suspects are between 16 and 21 years old. They were released after their arrest, but remain suspects.

The alleged mastermind lives with his mother in Oxford, about three miles from Oxford University. It concerns a 16-year-old boy with autism who is in special education, the knows BBC† According to the British broadcaster, he would have earned a fortune of 14 million dollars (12.7 million euros) by hacking institutions and companies.

His family has long been concerned about their son’s behavior and even tried to keep him away from computers, his father says. The family is surprised at the possible involvement in large-scale hacks. “I had never heard of this until recently. He has never talked about hacking, but he is very good with computers and spends a lot of time on the computer. I always thought he was playing games,” says the father.

The British teenager would be assisted by a teenager from Brazil, writes Bloomberg in an investigation. This teen is so adept and so quick at hacking that researchers initially thought the work he was doing was automated.

A total of seven accounts are linked to Lapsus$. It is not yet clear what the hackers’ motives are for attacking companies, but according to Bloomberg money and brand awareness play a role.

Lapsus$ is a relatively new hacker group, but it is already known as one of the most talked about and notorious cybercrime gangs in the world. Earlier this month, the group hacked into Okta, a company that makes authentication software for other companies.

This is software that makes access to an account or program more secure because a user has to take an extra step to gain access. It is not yet known whether the hackers were able to penetrate the company’s systems at the time. Microsoft announced Tuesday that the hackers had also penetrated them.

Lapsus$ is especially popular on Telegram with more than 47,000 subscribers. Yesterday, the group posted a message on the social platform referring to the arrests. ‘A few of our members are on holiday until 30/3/2022. We may be quiet for a while. Thank you for your understanding – we are trying to leak information again as soon as possible.”

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