Alex Trelinski
A CYBER-HACKER has been arrested in Alicante for being involved with the notorious Kelvin Security hacking group.
The Venezuelan national was jailed after appearing in court on Saturday.
The Kelvin Security organisation has carried out numerous attacks against institutions and companies around the world, including Spain.
A lengthy Policia Nacional investigation started two years ago after sophisticated cyberattacks were launched on computer systems of Getafe council(Madrid) and Camas council(Sevilla).
There subsequent attacks on La Haba council (Badajoz) and the Castilla-La Mancha regional government.
After several efforts to identify the perpetrators, police cyber experts pinned down the attacks as coming from the Kelvin Security group, through clandestine cybercriminal forums accessed through the Dark Web.
Unfiltered confidential data was sold- especially to people linked to other countries represented in the forums- the Policia Nacional said in a statement.
Officers confirmed that the group took advantage of vulnerabilities in websites, software and information storage services of institutions and entities belonging to strategic sectors around the world to carry out a massive extraction of sensitive information from internal data, customers, workers and users.
Kelvin Security, whose first online records date back to 2013, has reportedly profited from the sale of all that illicitly obtained information, having allegedly attacked more than 300 organizations in more than 90 countries around the world in the last three years.
In addition to Spain, its targets include countries such as the United States, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Chile and Japan.
The most recent attack occurred in mid-November 2023, targeting the headquarters of an energy company.
In this case, they managed to exfiltrate a database with confidential information of more than 85,000 customers.
As a result of the investigation, specialists in the fight against cyber threats managed to identify the now detained man as the main person responsible for money laundering the money obtained from the criminal activities of the hacktivist group.
He was a Venezuelan citizen who operated primarily through the cryptocurrency exchange.
During the arrest, which took place on Thursday, a search of his home was carried out, where numerous effects and technical support were seized and are now being analysed by cyber researchers.
The arrested person is charged with the crimes of belonging to a criminal organisation, disclosure of secrets, computer damage and money laundering.
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