Dubai: Dubai Police have arrested African hackers who attempted to blackmail five senior White House officials by hacking into their email accounts. The gang of three hackers will be handed over to US authorities after serving their jail term in the UAE, officials said on Monday.
Major Saud Bin Suror Al Khalidy, director of Information and Development in Cyber-Crimes Department in Dubai Police, said that the three Nigerian hackers hacked into the emails of the five senior officials in the White House and sent emails to blackmail the US officials.
They were arrested in UAE in 2015 and will be handed over to the US to face justice.
“They managed to got highly confidential information and US asked Dubai Police for assistance. We tracked down the gang to an apartment in Ajman and arrested the three suspects. They had a list of many bank accounts and hacking software and cash. They were prosecuted in the UAE and later will be handed to US after serving their jail term,” Major Al Khalidy said during a presentation in Emirates Forensic Conference and Exhibition.
He said the hackers targeted individuals and the White House by hacking their accounts and emails to steal private documents and information to commit fraud and blackmail.
He said that the information provided by US officials to Dubai Police didn’t include identities of the hackers, or their place of residence.
“We formed a professional team in order to follow-up on the cyber data available and to gain access to the gang. The professional team consisted of members from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Ajman police forces.”
A police team raided a flat in Ajman and arrested the 24-year-old suspect identified as B.A. who was the mastermind. Two other suspects, a 26-year-old identified as G A, and 26-year-old A A were also nabbed. They had entered the UAE on tourist visas.
“We found electronic devices, financial remittance documents, hacking software, bank accounts, and a list of electronic bank accounts, which were confiscated from the gang,” Major Al Khalidy said.
He said they were professional hackers and they were selling the information to individuals and operated from many countries. “It was a complicated operation as we discovered that they hacked into hundreds accounts of officials all around the world.”
Major Al Khalidy said that they gave the US a full file of the gang and the US had appreciated the UAE’s cooperation.
