Spain arrests an alleged head of the “Anonymous” hackers network, who is accused of infiltrating Colombian government websites, along with 24 other suspected hackers, according to Interpol.
The suspected Anonymous kingpin known as “Pacotron” faces charges over his alleged cyber attacks against the websites of the Colombian Presidency and the Defense and Interior ministries.
On their Colombian Twitter account, the hackers issued a response to the arrests, “
The arrests followed a major international police operation against “Anonymous,” entitled Operation Unmask. In recent weeks Interpol coordinated raids in 15 cities in Colombia, Spain, Argentina and Chile, and remanded in custody the 25 alleged members of Anonymous.
According to Interpol, Pacotron is an unemployed 40-year old systems expert who was based in Malaga.
The Spaniard reportedly used servers hosted in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria to attack the Colombian government, managing to make the state’s websites collapse through generating millions of simultaneous visits to the pages.
Among the 25 hackers uncovered by authorities, three were believed to be Colombian nationals and five based in the country. 16 inspections were carried out in Bogota, Medellin and Cali. The unmasked hackers were reported to be as young as 15-years-old.
Anonymous is one of the most internationally notorious hacker networks, and has previously infiltrated the websites of government entities throughout the world and famously attacked Paypal, after it cancelled payments to the whistleblowing site Wikileaks.
Anonymous Colombia’s twitter: