Who is behind the hack Charlie Hebdo ? After the computer attack that targeted the weekly on Wednesday January 4, many gray areas remain. An investigation was opened on Thursday into heads of fraudulent access and maintenance in an automated data processing system. According to the findings of Worldfiles stolen from the newspaper were put online, confirming information from Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Europe 1. The unidentified hacker claimed responsibility for the operation on at least two discussion forums. He claims to have obtained access to numerous internal and confidential documents, as well as to the data of more than 200,000 ” clients “ of the weekly.
The world was able to verify, with several victims of this leak, the veracity of a disseminated sample. This table mainly contains the surnames, first names, addresses, e-mails and sometimes telephone numbers of people who have, at least, made a purchase on the store of Charlie Hebdo. While it was not possible to precisely date the data collection, one of the victims contacted explained that he subscribed in mid-December.
An unknown pirate
The pirate’s profile clashes. On a discussion forum, for example, he claims to be ready to sell all of his loot for 20 bitcoins, or about 320,000 dollars. An abnormally high price for selling client files on the black market. Above all, it links accounts with the same name created in recent days on at least four forums for hackers, but having no activity, or the simple claim of hacking Charlie Hebdo. The e-mail address that he communicates to potential buyers also refers to a domain name purchased at the beginning of the year, and hosted on a server in Malaysia.
At least two French commercial sites have also recently been defaced – that is to say that one of their pages has been temporarily modified – to reveal the claim of the computer attack against the satirical newspaper. The hacker recently claimed recent similar acts on many French small business sites. Contacted, several of these companies did not immediately respond to requests from the World.
But it is above all a strange YouTube video that casts doubt on the motivations of this hack. This excerpt with a vague message, entitled “Holy spirits removed the mask from the face of ‘Charlie Hebdo'”asserts that the newspaper’s sales are collapsing, shows excerpts from documents, and concludes with a hazy “Charlie is not one of us”. The video, which refers to the name used by the hacker, Holy Souls (literally translated “Holy Souls”), suggests that the attack goes beyond the villainous motive, seeking to denigrate the newspaper.
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