Monday, November 28, 2011

Four people have been arrested in the Philippines for hacking into AT&T customers' phones as part of a plan to funnel money to a Saudi-based terror group, according to police

The Philippine Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said that it worked with the FBI to arrest the suspects. The hackers, according to investigators, worked for a group that helped finance a deadly 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. The hackers were working on commission for a terrorist group linked to Muhammad Zamir, according to the Philippine police. Zamir, a Pakistani, was arrested in Italy in 2007, where he was running a call center that collected money from callers but then routed the calls through hacked phone lines. He also sold international access codes for long distance calls that were gathered by Filipino hackers. Since then, police said, Zamir's group has been taken over by a Saudi national. Philippine police didn't name the group, but India has blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant organization, for the Mumbai attacks. Several years ago, 10 Pakistan-based gunmen laid siege to India's financial hub, killing 166 people.

No comments: