Police Arrest Suspected Member of TheDarkOverlord Hacking Group

Serbian law enforcement say they have arrested a suspected member of TheDarkOverlord hacking team as component of an intercontinental operation led by the FBI. Authorities say the team amassed in excess of 50 victims in excess of the previous various a long time but it was its hack of a company affiliated with Netflix and the subsequent leaking of time 5 of Orange is the New Black which grabbed the most headlines.

In April 2017, the very first episode of the brand new year of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black was uploaded to The Pirate Bay, months ahead of its official release date.

The leak was the work of a hacking entity contacting alone TheDarkOverlord (TDO). One of its users experienced contacted TorrentFreak months earlier proclaiming that the content was in its arms but until the community add, nothing at all could be verified.

TDO explained to us it had obtained the episodes right after hacking the programs of Hollywood-centered Larson Studios, an ADR (more dialogue recorded) studio, again in 2016. TDO experienced attempted to blackmail the corporation into having to pay a bitcoin ransom but when it wasn’t forthcoming, TDO pressed the nuclear button.

Netflix responded by issuing a wave of takedown notices but before long TDO moved onto a new focus on. In June 2017, TDO adopted up on an before risk to leak content owned by ABC.

But though TDO was potentially best recognized for its video-leaking exploits, the group’s core ‘business’ was hacking what several perceived to be softer targets. TDO ruthlessly slurped private facts from weakly secured pc programs at professional medical services, private procedures, and businesses significant and small.

In each individual case, the team demanded ransoms in exchange for silence and leaked sensitive facts to the community if none were paid out. With dozens of identified targets, TDO identified by itself at the middle of an worldwide investigation, led by the FBI. That now seems to have borne some fruit, with the arrest of an specific in Serbia.

Serbian police say that customers of its Ministry of Internal Affairs, Criminal Law enforcement Directorate (UCC), in coordination with the Distinctive Prosecution for Higher-Tech Crime, have taken motion from a suspected member of TheDarkOverlord group.

Police say they tracked down a Belgrade resident, who was arrested and taken into custody. Discovered only by the initials “S.S”, police say the person was born in 1980 but have unveiled no more personal aspects. A look for of his condominium and other areas led to the seizure of merchandise of digital machines.

“According to the purchase of the Distinctive Prosecutor’s Workplace for Substantial-Tech Criminal offense, prison rates will be brought versus him for the reason that of the suspicion that he fully commited the felony offense of unauthorized accessibility to a protected personal computer, laptop or computer networks and electronic processing, and the felony offense of extortion,” a law enforcement assertion reads.

In before correspondence with TF, the TDO member often gave the effect of doing the job as element of a staff but we only experienced a one speak to stage which appeared to be the similar human being. However, Serbian authorities say the larger investigation is aimed at uncovering “a huge range of people” who work below the banner of “TheDarkOverlord”.

Because June 2016, the team is stated to have targeted at minimum 50 victims even though demanding bitcoin ransoms to avoid disclosure of their written content. Serbian authorities say that on the basis of obtainable knowledge, TDO received payments of more than $275,000.