Major hacking crew taken down in South America

Chilean police have reported on a significant success in their fight against cybercrime this week. Chile’s special cybercrime unit said it dismantled a major hacking conglomerate, with four arrests made on Monday. The crew, named by sources in the country as the “Byond Hackers Team”, is known to be one of the most prolific in the world, with more than 8,000 website hacks to its name. The arrests were carried out following a long investigation that started in March this year. Two men were apprehended at their homes, while the other two underage members of the group voluntarily came to the police accompanied by their parents.

The Chilean hacking group became known across the world in 2005, when it engaged in a virtual shoot-out with their counterparts in Peru. The cyber-conflict between two groups of “patriotic” hackers led to government websites of both countries being broken into. Sources in Chile claim they wielded a constant war not only with their colleagues from Peru, but also neighbouring Argentina. It is believed a 23-year-old engineering student and a 37-year-old programmer led the gang and were well known by their nicks: “Nettoxic” and “SSH-2”. Apart from the conflict with Peru they were famous for hacking the NASA website, as well as government sites in their own country, the US, Israel and many other South American states.

The 8-month investigation mostly centred on the leader of the group, who was identified by his place of study. Gerardo Raventos, who led the investigative team in Chile, revealed that the operation was a truly international effort: assistance was received from Interpol, the US, Israel, Turkey and several South American countries. Leonardo Hernandez, 23, known as “Nettoxic”, who was the first to be arrested, revealed to Chilean media that he only carried out his attacks for fun and did not engage in cyberfraud or steal any money through his online activities. In spite of this, he could face up to five years in jail for hacking into websites and illegally accessing private information. The two adults in the group have already been charged with cyber-sabotage and remanded in custody for a period of 90 days, while their two teenage accomplices were temporarily freed. According to some sources, the group used hacking as a form of political protest, placing anti-war and social justice messages on hacked websites.