They ran amok in 2014, breaking into the IT systems of the Public Ministry, the Attorney General’s Office, PSP and GNR police, town councils, even Novo Banco.
But now that the PJ investigation is complete, we learn that the hackers were by and large “a bunch of kids intent on mischief”.
Recruited by the allure of anti-establishment group Anonymous, the youngsters rattled away at their keyboards behind the closed doors of their rooms in homes shared with unsuspecting parents and grandparents.
Say reports today, as police investigated they “surprised old people in their 90s” as these were the official title-holders of contracts for the internet being used so mischievously by their offspring’s offspring.
Investigations uncovered no less than 33 young people – none of which could be described as activists, explains Correio da Manhã.
Though their messages were anarchic and political, their backgrounds were simple: a catering student, an apprentice bricklayer, curious young people almost all of them ‘self taught’.
Now, 23 have been charged with crimes of IT sabotage, criminal association and illegitimate access.
As opposed to countries where these young hackers are often recruited to work ‘within the system’ to help public institutions stay safe from cybercrime, here – where police have already let it be known that their antics were more “a competition” to see how far each one could go – it seems they are to be treated as criminals.
Says pplware news website, the young defendants of varying ages are charged with a total of 376 crimes.
The most talked about was the hacking of singer Tony Carreira’s webpage, warning him that “No one ever forgets corruption – particularly when it involves copying songs to make money”.
The ‘attack’ originated, police later discovered, from a 14-year-old boy on a basic home computer.
