The Spanish National Police arrested a Venezuelan citizen believed to be one of the alleged leaders of the financial apparatus of a hacktivist group, known as “Kelvin Security,” responsible for more than 300 high-level attacks against strategic sectors across over 90 countries in the last 3 years.
The group's main objectives are critical infrastructure and government institutions, the police said. The recent group’s attacks included the hack of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, the Mexican political party Morena, and the intrusion into the systems of a Chilean bank, compromising 17,736 dataset records, including the bank’s confidential customer information.
To compromise their targets, the group exploits software vulnerabilities and, once inside the victim network, the hackers steal access credentials and exfiltrate sensitive information. The stolen data is then sold on the underground forums..
The police have not named the arrested individual but said that he was the main person responsible for money laundering for the group through cryptocurrency exchanges. He was charged with involvement in a criminal organization, disclosure of secrets, computer damage and money laundering.
The police officers searched the detainee's home and seized numerous effects and technical supports to be analyzed by cyber investigators.
The group's most recent attack took place mid-November of this year against the headquarters of a multinational energy company from which they managed to extract a database with confidential information of more than 85,000 clients.