A super hacker by the name of VandaTheGod who hacked governments, corporations and individuals alike since 2013 has been linked with high certainty to a specific Brazilian individual from the city of Uberlandia.
Researchers at Isreali cybersecurity firm Check Point said they have relayed the findings to law enforcement agencies to enable them to take further action, adding that adding the social media activities on profiles associated with VandaTheGod came to a halt towards the end of 2019.
Since 2013, many official websites belonging to governments worldwide were hacked and defaced by an attacker who self-identified as 'VandaTheGod.'
The hacker targeted governments in numerous countries, including: Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Thailand, Vietnam, and New Zealand.
"Many of the messages left on the defaced websites implied that the attacks were motivated by anti-government sentiment, and were carried out to combat social injustices that the hacker believed were a direct result of government corruption," Check Point said on Thursday.
VandaTheGod didn't just go after government websites, but also launched attacks against public figures, universities, and even hospitals.
In one case, the attacker claimed to have access to the medical records of 1 million patients from New Zealand, which were offered for sale for just $200.
"Most of VandaTheGod's attacks against governments were politically motivated, but a closer look at some of tweets shows the attacker also trying to achieve a personal goal: hacking a total of 5,000 websites," said researchers.
The goal was nearly reached, as there are currently 4,820 records of hacked websites linked to VandaTheGod.
"VandaTheGod has proven with numerous successful attacks against reputable websites, that hacktivism often crosses a line into further criminal activity, such as credentials and payment-card theft," said Check Point.
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( With inputs from IANS )