A USDoD hacker, one of the perpetrators of the hack on the National Public Data and InfraGard breaches, was arrested by Brazil’s Polícia Federal as part of “Operation Data Breach.”
This cybercriminal group, which also goes by the name EquationCorp, is a notorious organisation that targets high-profile entities. Moreover, this group commonly steals information and frequently posts it on hacking forums to provoke its victims.
These breaches include those on a threat intelligence sharing platform and National Public Data, which exposed the personal information and social security numbers of hundreds of millions of US individuals online.
Additionally, the group successfully attacked CrowdStrike and leaked its internal threat actor list. However, this backfired for the threat actors after the affected firm reported the attacker’s identity.
After leaking the IOC list, a Brazilian publisher received an anonymous CrowdStrike report that allegedly identified the threat actor, revealing him as a 33-year-old Brazilian named Luan BG.
USDoD confirmed the legitimacy of the identity of the threat actor.
USDoD verified that the reported identification was accurate and revealed that it currently lives in Brazil.
The malicious organisation praised the firm for doxing them, but they quickly explained that other entities had already identified them. Brazil’s Polícia Federal (PF) reported that they had already apprehended the actor earlier this week in Belo Horizonte/MG, using the information from the compromised firm.
The Federal Police initiated Operation Data Breach on October 16 to survey intrusions into the networks of the Federal Police and other foreign institutions.
The USDoD prisoner bragged on websites that it was responsible for several cybercriminal attacks carried out against various countries. The actor claimed to have disclosed sensitive data of about 80,000 members of InfraGard, a partnership between the FBI and private entities in the United States.
Still, the Brazilian authorities have successfully operated as part of Operation Data Breach, which resulted in the apprehension of one of the most notorious cybercriminal entities worldwide.
