Alleged ShinyHunters Hacker Group Member Arrested

****Sebastian Raoult (Le Français Sébastien Raoult), aka Sezyo, was arrested on June 1st, 2022 from the Rabat international airport and is believed to be one of the alleged members of the infamous ShinyHunters group.****

A French student has been detained in Morocco on Interpol Red Notice after the US FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) accused him of being “one of the important members” of the infamous ShinyHunters group and hacking into hundreds of American organizations.

Arrest Details

Sebastian Raoult (Le Français Sébastien Raoult), aka Sezyo, was arrested on June 1st 2022 from the Rabat international airport. The suspect wanted to board a flight to Brussels, Belgium. According to the FBI, the suspect is allegedly part of a group of hackers called ShinyHunters.

Sebastian Raoult (Le Français Sébastien Raoult) Image credit: L’Obs (Nouvel Obs)

Apart from Raoult, four other French residents were questioned upon the request of the FBI. Raoult was arrested after Interpol issued a red notice against him. A Washington State prosecutor issued the notice.

The US now demands the suspect’s extradition to the USA for cyber fraud and cybercrime allegations. However, Raoult’s lawyer, Philippe Ohayon, has rejected this idea, claiming that the case falls under French jurisdiction since the alleged acts were committed in France by French national(s).

It is worth noting that extraditing a French national isn’t so easy because the country has previously refused to extradite young offenders for hacking charges. For instance, as pointed out by Dissent Doe of DataBreaches.net, none of the French citizens charged as GnosticPlayers were extradited to the USA.

The USA is currently seeking extradition from Morocco, though.

Who’s the Suspect?

The 21-year-old Raoult from Epinal was a computer science student. L’Obs, a weekly French news magazine reports that he has been held in Tiflet prison since he was arrested. He is facing a 116-year prison sentence for the charges attributed to him. The accused’s father stated that his son was just a student and he could not possibly be involved in cybercrimes.

“It’s not possible, my son is only a student who wants to work in computer security later. He says that his identity has been taken from him,” Raoult’s father stated.

The ShinyHunters Connection

According to L’Obs, the detained Frenchman is a member of the notorious ShinyHunters hacking collective. It is worth noting that ShinyHunters is known for targeting high-profile companies, stealing their databases, and selling them on the dark web and clearnet marketplaces.

In January 2021, Hackread.com exclusively reported on one of the ShinyHunters’ massive hacks in which the hackers were offering databases of 26 organizations impacting 368 million users.

The data was up for sale on the now seized Raidforums cybercrime forum for $1800 to $4000 in Bitcoin.

(Image: Hackread)

List of Data Breaches Claimed by ShinyHunters

ShinyHunters have claimed responsibility for several high-profile data breaches. These include companies in the United States, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and many more. Here is a list of data breaches claimed by ShinyHunters and reported by Hackread.com:

• 123RF – 8.3M accounts leaked
• Mashable – 5.22GB worth of data
• Minted – 5 million accounts leaked
• Dunzo – 11GB worth of data leaked
• AT&T Inc. – 70 million accounts sold
• ProctorU – 444,267 accounts leaked
• WedMeGood – 41.5 GB worth of data
• Dave.com – 7 million accounts leaked
• Bhinneka – 1 million+ accounts leaked
• WattPad – 271 million accounts leaked
• Tokopedia – 91 million accounts leaked
• Big Basket – 20 million accounts leaked
• Couchsurfing – 17 million accounts leaked
• Animal Jam – Tens of millions of users’ data, especially children.

I am a UK-based cybersecurity journalist with a passion for covering the latest happenings in cyber security and tech world. I am also into gaming, reading and investigative journalism