The US authorities are looking for a group of hackers called “Shiny Hunters” suspected of being behind attacks against companies worth millions of dollars in damages, but far from being a “gang of cybercriminals”, they may have acted out of their “passion for information”.
Among the suspects are three French nationals, one of whom is Sebastien Raoult, who was arrested in Morocco and may be extradited to the United States.
The activities of “Shiny Hunters” are based on “collecting user data to sell it,” according to what was briefed to AFP by researchers from the cybersecurity group who prepared a report in this regard.
According to an American indictment issued in June 2021 against Sebastian Raoult, “Shiny Hunters” became famous after it had stolen since 2019 the data of dozens of companies around the world, including institutions in the United States, and some of this data was sold on the dark web (Dark Web).
According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the group hacked accounts and information networks belonging to several companies, especially through the technology known as phishing, which allowed it to target employees using widespread services such as the informational code-sharing platform “Github”. The giant “Microsoft”.
Three Frenchmen
Experts revealed that the list of victims of this group included, for the sake of census, the “Microsoft” account on “Github”, the Indonesian e-commerce site “Tocopedia”, the American clothing brand “Bonobos”, the electronic PDF editor (PDF Nitro), and the American phone operator AT&T (AT&T).
Based on IP addresses, connected accounts, Discord chats and other elements, the FBI concluded that three French nationals belonged to SHINee Hunters, including 21-year-old Sebastien Raoult.
As for the other two French, they are Abdo. Nicknamed “Zack” or “Jordan Keso”, and Gabriel K. B. Nicknamed “Coroa” or “Nostic Players”, he suffers from Asperger’s syndrome.
Gabriel K. B. In 2019, to a trial against the background of the hacking of the “Vivo” channel and the video tape of the song “Despacito” on “YouTube”, and the court ruled that the defendant was not criminally liable. This 23-year-old information genius is the subject of a judicial investigation in a separate case, against the background of being suspected of hacking with other cryptocurrency platform “Github” in 2019.
Three phases
The name “Shiny Hunters” appeared for the first time in April 2020 on the “RaidForums” forum, which has become closed, according to the conclusions of “Intel 471” researchers.
The group carried out its first strikes in May of that year, when it leaked the data of 91 million users of “Tocopedia”, according to reports by the information security group “Digital Shadows”.
SHINee Hunters initially tried to sell the first data they stole. But as of July 2020, publications began to discuss a “second phase” of publishing these rules for free on hacker platforms, according to Evan Riggi, an analyst at Digital Shadows, who confirmed that “they were very popular on the platforms and they sought to be recognized by others. ».
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