The police officers only had one nickname: Lacoste, like the crocodile brand. According to an investigation by the French authorities, behind this pseudonym there is a hacker Spaniard who, from his central apartment worth 7,000 euros per month in Madrid, blackmailed and demanded ransoms from companies in his country in exchange for giving them back access to their databases, which he had previously sabotaged. This is the version of the French police, who accuse him of causing damage to 26 companies in the neighboring country worth more than two million euros, if the losses due to lack of activity, the purchase of computer programs and the payment are added. of the rescue. The defense maintains that the result of the cyber attacks is much lower than what the agents claim and that the Spaniard’s participation in the extortion plot has not even been proven. A French judge, for now, has released him provisionally pending the completion of the investigation.
It all started in July 2021, with a complaint from a boiler sales and installation company. The firm, based a few kilometers from Bordeaux, claimed that someone had encrypted its databases and left it a cyber message demanding the payment of a ransom. In real life, this means that they had kidnapped the raw materials with which the company worked every day and had left a note in which they asked for money in exchange for returning it. From that date until February 2022, French authorities identified 25 other attacks like this that came from the same source. At least two of the companies paid ransoms, one for the boilers and another dedicated to the installation of heating and ventilation systems, but this transaction did not help them recover their data.
How he acted
The method that this extortion network used to shield the victims’ data is ransomware Babuk, a virus that enters systems through emails from phishing (which simulate a real page and lead to a fake one) or that looks for vulnerabilities in outdated computer tools. Once executed on the victim’s system, Babuk searches for and encrypts important files using cryptographic algorithms. The preferred victims of cybercriminals who use this method are medium-sized companies, with a sufficient volume of computerized data, but with protection systems that are not as sophisticated as those of large companies.
The authorities’ investigation led to Lacoste, a 29-year-old man located in Spain. French investigators discovered that the ransom was charged in bitcoin (virtual currency) and also found transactions between the extorted companies and a virtual wallet in the name of the accused, but they could only prove a payment of 600 euros. The agents also included as evidence several photos of the hacker with wads of cash, luxury cars and the rental contract for luxury apartments in Madrid. The alleged hacker faces charges of criminal organization, money laundering, fraud and extortion.
The French prosecutor’s office ordered the arrest of the Spaniard in July and, in August, the National Court accepted his surrender to the French justice system, a procedure that was halted while waiting to decide on an appeal by his defense, exercised by lawyer Juango Ospina. Finally, the lawyer negotiated a voluntary declaration, instead of a forced surrender, which took place last week. After spending five hours testifying, the prosecution requested that he be placed in prison and the judge authorized it.
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However, a tool of French justice allows that decision to be appealed at that moment before a judge of guarantees, a magistrate totally unrelated to the case who listens to the accusation and the defense from scratch. The Spaniard’s lawyer maintained that the police investigation is based on “conjectures” and that the amount swindled is far from two million euros. This new judge decided to release the Spaniard after finding no reason for flight risk and appreciating that there has been no new criminal activity in recent months.
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