SINGAPORE: A 39-year-old man believed to be responsible for at least 75 hacking cases across the globe was arrested in Thailand on Wednesday (Feb 26).
His arrest came after a cross-border operation between the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Royal Thai Police, said the SPF in a statement on Feb 27.
Investigations into the data breaches began in 2020 after 11 victims in Singapore filed police reports. The victims had been subjected to ransom demands from several threat actors after having their data stolen.
The threat actors identified themselves as Altdos, Desorden, GhostR and 0mid16B, said the statement, adding that the multiple aliases were likely to be connected to the same person.
When victims failed to pay the ransom demanded, their stolen data would be published online for sale.
Desorden made the news in 2021 after the person leaked data from employment agency Protemps Employment Services online, making it available for €2.10 (S$3).
Desorden also claimed responsibility for two hacking incidents involving PC vendor Acer in India and Taiwan.
According to digital risk monitoring platform CloudSEK, Desorden primarily targeted firms in Asia, focusing on conglomerates with high revenues.
Altdos was behind the hacking of real estate firm OrangeTee & Tie in August 2021, which led to the information of more than 250,000 customers, employees and agents being compromised.
The statement said that officers from the Cybercrime Command in SPF worked closely with the Thai police to share findings from their investigations.
The collaboration helped establish the identity of the suspect, who is believed to be also responsible for several data breach cases in Thailand. His nationality was not mentioned in the SPF statement.
Thai police have seized assets worth more than 10 million baht (S$395,500), including laptops, mobile phones, luxury vehicles and branded bags.
Investigations are ongoing.
Expressing his appreciation to the Royal Thai Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Tay reiterated SPF’s commitment to working closely with regional partners.
AC Tay, who is also commander of the Cybercrime Command, said: “We remain relentless in our pursuit of cyber criminals, and will hunt them down wherever they are and bring them to justice.” - The Straits Times/ANN
