Spain’s most dangerous and elusive hacker now in police custody
The police in Spain have arrested José Luis Huertas (aka “Alcaseca”, “Mango”, “chimichuri”), a 19-year-old regarded as the most dangerous hackers in the country.
Huertas is considered to be responsible for multiple high-profile cyberattacks and for creating a search engine called Udyat (the eye of Horus) dedicated to selling stolen sensitive information in large numbers.
A police investigation started in November 2022 eventually lead to the identification and arrest of the young hacker, who has been described as “a serious threat to national security.”
At Huertas’ home and other registered addresses, law enforcement agents seized large amounts of cash, documentation, and computers that will help discover the hacker’s activity.
The investigation was launched after breaching the computer network of Spain’s national council of the judiciary (CGPJ). During this attack, the hacker stole the data of 575,000 taxpayers and created a database to sell that information to other cybercriminals.
The details hosted on that illegal service include personally identifiable information, account numbers, bank numbers, and more.
Huertas is also accused of impersonating Paolo Vasile, the CEO of Gestevisión Telecinco/Mediaset España, and stealing EUR 300,000 from him. Charges also include attacking high-state institutions and money laundering.
The hacker grew bolder with each attack, to the point that in an interview on YouTube he claimed to have access to information of roughly 90% of all Spanish citizens.
Policia Nacional says that following a complex investigation, specialists in the cyber threat investigation of the General Information Police Station were able to identify the individual responsible for the attacks, a 19-year-old man with a long history in the world of cybercrime.
According to details in local media, the Spanish police were able to track the young hacker by following the money trail for the hosting services of the “Eye of Horus” server.
Although Huertas was using cryptocurrency that had been “cleaned” through mixing services, the police could still trace the payments with the help of experts at the National Cryptological Center.
Huertas will remain in custody until the date of his trial, as the investigators consider there’s an enormous risk that he will escape, destroy evidence, and continue to commit crimes of similar nature.
Judge José Luis Calama motivated his decision for the suspect to remain detained by saying that he has significant amounts of cryptocurrency that would allow him to reside anywhere in the world, avoiding the action of Spanish justice.
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