At a press conference in Lisbon, the director of the Cybercrime Unit, Carlos Cabrero, gave details of the operation, already announced by Europol and which led to the closure of one of the world’s largest ‘hackers’ platforms, which sold access to the databases of several US companies. targeted by cyber attacks.
The administrator of the hacker forum, which has half a million users, was a 21-year-old Portuguese who created the platform in 2015.
The Portuguese national was arrested in London, but according to Carlos Caprio, this does not mean that he lived in the UK, but that he was in the UK, and he also resides in Portugal.
The official said that the young man’s extradition was requested by the United States.
In response to a question from reporters, Carlos Caprio said it was too early to make connections between the forum’s activity and recent cyber attacks in Portugal, other cyber attacks in other countries or election manipulation in the United States. “There was no direct relationship with the US elections,” he said.
The platform, an “information forum of criminal origin,” provided, for example, information on credit cards, bank account numbers, access credentials or passwords and usernames, explained the director of PJ’s cybercrime unit.
Carlos Cabero admitted that the information the authorities obtained now could be useful to uncover some computer crimes and solve “hundreds or thousands” of investigations taking place around the world, and said that in addition to the Portuguese young man and two accomplices no longer held, no one had been arrested in Portugal in the past. regarding the investigation.
FP // JMR
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