According to a Bloomberg report, a 16-year old living in the United Kingdom is suspected of being the mastermind behind the Lapsus$ hacking group. In case, you don’t know or have not heard about Lapsus$, this is the hacking group behind the recent data hacks of Samsung and Nvidia, as well as recently revealed breaches at Microsoft and Okta.
The teenager, name withheld because of his age, is said to have amassed a $14m (£10.6m) fortune from hacking.
The teenager goes by the online moniker “White” or “Breachbase” and he is said to be behind the Lapsus$ hacker group operating out of South America.
City of London Police say they have arrested seven teenagers in relation to the gang. According to them, “Seven people between the ages of 16 and 21 have been arrested in connection with an investigation into a hacking group. They have all been released under investigation. Our inquiries remain ongoing.”
The suspected teenager’s identity was apparently revealed by angry customers doxing him.
According to security reporter Brian Krebs, the teenager purchased Doxbin last year, a site where people can share or find personal information on others, before giving up control of the website in January and leaking the entire Doxbin data set to Telegram. The Doxbin community retaliated by releasing personal information on him, including his home address, social media photos and details about his parents.
They posted a biography of his hacking career, saying: “After a few years his net worth accumulated to well over 300BTC [close to $14m]… [he is] now is affiliated with a wannabe ransomware group known as ‘Lapsus$’, who has been extorting & ‘hacking’ several organisations.”
The boy’s father told the BBC: “I had never heard about any of this until recently. He’s never talked about any hacking, but he is very good on computers and spends a lot of time on the computer. I always thought he was playing games.”
“We’re going to try to stop him from going on computers.”
