The mastermind behind the hacking of Microsoft, Samsung and Nvidia is a 16-year-old boy?

In the past month, Microsoft, Samsung, Nvidia and Okta have been attacked by a series of hacking groups called Lapsus$, which hacked the internal servers of these companies and stole a lot of confidential information.

It is reported that in this hacking attack, Nvidia lost confidential GPU design files, driver source code, etc., and Microsoft also stole a lot of important source code, and Okta also fell into a public relations crisis.

After attacking Okta, the group stated that several members had only a vacation on March 30, so would be quiet for a while, claiming:

"Thank you for your understanding, we will break the news as soon as possible."

Recently, network security experts have compared the traces left by the attack with public information and found that the mastermind of the hacking group may be a British teenager who is only 16 years old. Because he is still a minor, his name has not been disclosed. .

The teenager is known to be codenamed "White" or "Breachbase".

Researchers believe there are at least seven members of the group, but they have not disclosed the details of the other members but have begun investigating a Brazilian underage.

The exact motive behind Lapsus$'s attack is unknown, but experts speculate that they may be for money or to increase "industry" visibility.

According to people familiar with the matter, the hacking group was so skilled in carrying out the attack that the 16-year-old British teenager was even called a "genius" because in the early stages of the investigation, the attack was believed to be from bot software. automated operation.

It is reported that to assist the attack, they will also recruit "internal personnel of the victim company to assist them in the hacking attack."

Microsoft said the hacker group was conducting "a massive social engineering and extortion campaign targeting multiple organizations" motivated by attacks on businesses, data theft and ransom payments.

However, unlike other hacker organizations, this organization will not cover up its attack activities. They even announce their attacks on social media and publish advertisements. It is precisely because of their "high profile" that the investigation team can make short-term The specific identities of the members of the organization are obtained within the period.