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Dutch suspect 'SK' arrested for Spamhaus cyber attack called internet's largest

Dutch suspect 'SK' arrested for Spamhaus cyber attack called internet's largest

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Cyberbunker exterior (from company website)
Cyberbunker exterior (from company website)

Prosecutors in the Netherlands just announced the arrest of the chief suspect in the massive cyber attacks that took place last month against European spam-fighting organization Spamhaus, which some security experts called the largest distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in internet history. The suspect's name hasn't been released, only his initials, "SK," and age, 35. But the Dutch public prosecution service said in a news release that he was picked up by authorities in Spain and is being transferred to the Netherlands, "suspected of unprecedented heavy attacks," on not only Spamhaus, but "partners in the United States, the Netherlands and Great Britain." Authorities in Spain also searched the house where the suspect was staying and seized "computers, data carriers, and mobile phones."

"K. is suspected of unprecedented heavy attacks."

The DDoS attacks against Spamhaus and its allies were thought to have come as a form of retaliation in the name of Cyberbunker, a Dutch web hosting company that allows all content on its hosted web domains except "child pornography" and "terrorism," which Spamhaus accused of being a home to spam websites. Spamhaus added Cyberbunker to its list of blocked websites and was subsequently flooded with web traffic, crashing its website and slowing connections for "millions of ordinary internet users," according to the New York Times.

The Times also recently reported that Dutch prosecutors had opened an investigation into one suspect in the attacks, Sven Olaf Kamphuis, a programmer who had helped set up Cyberbunker and who said he was the spokesperson for the attackers targeting Spamhaus, but later denied he played any role in launching the DDoS attacks. Because Kamphuis's initials match those of the suspect arrested in Spain last night, many outlets have speculated that he is in fact the one who was arrested. We've reached out to the Dutch prosecution office for more information on the arrest and will update when we hear back.