Spanish authorities this week announced the arrest of four members of the Anonymous Fénix group for their involvement in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
The suspects, who were not named, targeted the websites of government, political, and public entities, the Spanish authorities say. Their activity peaked after the catastrophic October 2024 floods in Valencia.
In May last year, Spain’s Civil Guard arrested two individuals suspected of being the administrator and moderator of the hacking group. Two other members of the group were arrested earlier this month.
Claiming to be part of the international hacktivist collective Anonymous, the suspects began their malicious activities in April 2023, when they were conducting propaganda operations on X and Telegram, mainly targeting Spanish and South American institutions.
According to the Spanish authorities, the group intensified its activities beginning in September 2024, recruiting volunteers to mount attacks against selected targets.
After the Valencia floods, they targeted multiple websites belonging to the public administration, claiming it was responsible for the tragedy.
Along with the arrest of the four suspects, the Spanish authorities seized the group’s YouTube and X accounts and closed its Telegram channel.
In early February, law enforcement announced the arrest of an individual suspected of launching cyberattacks against over 40 organizations, including NATO, the United Nations, the US Army, and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
An 18-year-old suspect allegedly stole the victim organizations’ data and leaked it online. He allegedly used multiple online aliases and operated at least 50 cryptocurrency accounts.
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