London police arrest Lapsus$ hacker group suspects aged 16 to 21

The City of London police have arrested seven suspects in connection with several hacking attacks recently carried out on behalf of the Lapsus$ group. A 16-year-old boy played a central role, according to investigators, but it is unclear whether he was also arrested.

Central London police say they are investigating a hacker group and have arrested suspects. “Seven people between the ages of 16 and 21 have been arrested in connection with an investigation into a hacking group. They have all been released but are part of an investigation. Our investigation continues,” the police said in a statement.

The report of the arrests follows claims by security researchers that a 16-year-old boy from Oxford plays a central role in Lapsus$. He would operate under the names ‘White’ and ‘Breachbase’. Details of the teen are said to have surfaced online after rival hackers doxed him: revealing the identity behind an alias. Doxbin said the boy had amassed around $14 million in bitcoin in just a few years.

It is unclear whether the Oxford boy is also one of the arrested suspects. The London police did not say anything about this to the BBC. According to Bloomberg, researchers have identified seven accounts related to Lapsus$ and one of them could be… a teenager from Brazil to be.

Lapsus$ has claimed multiple recent attacks on companies, including Microsoft, Okta, Nvidia and Samsung. Striking was the brutal way of extorting and threatening to publish stolen data. Microsoft stated that DEV-0537, as the company calls Lapsus$, stood out for using tactics not often seen in hacking groups, such as social engineering through phone calls and SIM swapping. “Unlike most under-the-radar groups, DEV-0537 cannot erase his tracksMicrosoft wrote.

Lapsus$’s Telegram channel denies that any members have been arrested. There was, however, a report on March 23 that some members were on vacation and that they would be back on March 30. Tencent is mentioned as the next target there, ‘after the administrators are back’.