14 DAY TRIAL // The Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested five members of an internationally known hacking group called PAKbugs. The group's leader is still at large and is believed to reside in Saudi Arabia.
PAKbugs is a hacking group notorious for defacing websites and engaging in credit card fraud. A website defacement refers to the practice of replacing or altering the first page of a compromised website to display a message from the attackers, usually boasting about their feat.
According to statistics from Web defacement archive Zone-H, from April to December 2009, PAKbugs members have defaced 1720 websites, and these are only the reported ones. Out of these, 1711 attacks represented mass defacements, where more than one website was compromised at a time.
Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) announced that five high ranking members of the group have been arrested as part of an operation that involved raids across the country. AFP reports that PAKbugs co-founder Hassan Khan is one of the people detained. Police caught up with him in the city of Peshawar, while others were picked up in Lahore, Bannu and Rawalpindi.
In a statement the agency also noted that Pakbugs members were responsible for stealing and miusing credit card details. Computers and other electronic equipment used to perform cyber crimes were seized by the authorities during the raids and will serve as evidence. In Pakistan electronic fraud is punishable with between seven to ten years in prison.
PAKbugs members had run-ins with FIA before and even taunted and mocked the agency. Back in January the group hacked the FIA operated website of the Pakistani National Response Center for Cyber Crimes (NR3C). "Your whole database and e-mails are leaked .... i was really excited to read, see what the [expletive] is private in here lOl. I Guess, Federal Investigation Dept of Pakistan is in Wrong, Untalented Hands !!" ZombiE_KsA, the group's founder wrote at the time.
Jawaad Ehsan, alias Humza, known online as ZombiE_KsA is Pakistan's most well known hacker. He was not amongst the five people arrested by FIA and authorities believe that he is currently residing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The hackers detained and charged with electronic crimes were Hassan Khan, aka x00mx00m, Hafiz Ahmad, aka Virgil, Farman Ullah Khan, aka Farman, Malik Hammad Khalid, aka inject0r and Taamir Zafar Bighty, aka h4v0c-. Police is also searching for several other members identified as BiG Smoke, Cyber-Criminal, spo0feR and [a].
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