Spanish Police Arrest 16-Year-Old Accused of Running KillSec Ransomware Group
Spanish police arrested a 16-year-old Romanian in Alicante, suspected of running the KillSec ransomware group, while Europol and partners in Europe and the U.S. seized its servers, leak site, and at least 110 terabytes of stolen data. Two other suspects in their twenties were arrested in Britain and Romania, and a fourth suspect has been identified. Operation KillSwitch, led by German investigators, targets about 1,000 suspected attacks worldwide, with around 500 confirmed successful. KillSec is accused of using ransomware and double extortion: breaking into poorly secured systems and cloud storage, stealing data, encrypting servers, and threatening publication unless victims paid in cryptocurrency. Victims across the U.S., Europe, and Switzerland were named on its leak site. U.S. prosecutors also charged a UK-based suspect in connection with attacks, including a Puerto Rico breach. Investigators say the group used AI to support its infrastructure and victim selection.
