Hamza Bendelladj
Algerian hacker (born 1988)
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Key Takeaways
- Hamza Bendelladj (Arabic: حمزة بن دلاج , romanized: Ḥamza ben Delāj ; born 3 June 1988) is an Algerian cyberhacker and carder who goes by the code name BX1 and has been nicknamed the " Smiling Hacker ".
- "Gribodemon", to steal banking information stored on infected computers.
- Once he took control of an account, he emptied it.
- He did not resist arrest.
- He earned the nickname "Smiling Hacker" due to the smile on his face during his media presentation on all the photos taken after his arrest even when handcuffed.
Hamza Bendelladj (Arabic: حمزة بن دلاج, romanized: Ḥamza ben Delāj; born 3 June 1988) is an Algerian cyberhacker and carder who goes by the code name BX1 and has been nicknamed the "Smiling Hacker".
This led to a search for him that lasted 5 years. He was on the top 10 list of the most wanted hackers by Interpol and the FBI for allegedly embezzling tens of millions of dollars from more than two hundred American and European financial institutions via a computer virus, the "SpyEYE Botnet", which infected more than 60 million computers worldwide, mostly from the United States, and was developed with his Russian accomplice Aleksandr Andreivich Panin, a.k.a. "Gribodemon", to steal banking information stored on infected computers.
Mode of operation
Using malicious software called "SpyEye", Bendelladj under the pseudonyms "BX1" or "Daniel HB", broke into the computers of banks and private individuals to acquire passwords and identification codes. Once he took control of an account, he emptied it.
Arrest
After a three-year chase, Bendelladj was arrested on January 7, 2013 by Thai police while making a stopover in Bangkok in transit between Malaysia and Egypt. He did not resist arrest. He said goodbye to his family as he was arrested and his wife and daughter continued their journey to Egypt without him. He earned the nickname "Smiling Hacker" due to the smile on his face during his media presentation on all the photos taken after his arrest even when handcuffed. According to Thai police, Bendelladj was in the top 10 most wanted by the FBI.
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