The investigation into the hacking of Free that took place between October 8 and 21 and which allegedly led to the theft of data from 19.2 million of the operator's customers is at a turning point. According to the newspaper Le Parisien, a 17-year-old hacker from Breuillet (Essonne) is currently in police custody in connection with this case... but not only that.
The young man is suspected of being behind the hacking of the operator, but he is also said to be involved in other high-profile leaks in recent months. Investigators have linked his case to the hacking of Altice's Twitter account and the customer base of Sport 2000 stores. Suspected of being involved in all three cases, the teenager could be brought before a court this Wednesday.
Is the Free hack an isolated incident?
At the time of writing, Free has not yet responded to this information. It must be said that the operator has not been very forthcoming about this affair. It took more than two months for it to provide any official explanations after apologizing to its customers. Indeed, on December 9, Free explained that there was internal complicity, that is to say an operator guilty of having given its identifiers to the cybercriminal behind the attack.
For the moment, it is too early to say that it is this lead that led investigators to Breteuil, to the home of the suspected young man, but if the investigation is completed, it will highlight all the flaws that led to this enormous data leak that not only compromised the data of nearly 20 million, but also the IBAN accounts of more than 5 million of them. IBAN account that the editorial staff of 01net.com has since demonstrated could be used to make purchases, among other things.
Is Free responsible for the attack?
This announcement of the arrest of the alleged hacker comes at a time when Free's responsibility has not yet been decided. The day after the data leak, several thousand customers contacted the CNIL (National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties) regarding the cyberattack and the operator's responsibility. This action, like the CNIL investigation, is still ongoing.
Source: Le Parisien
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