French police arrested Vincent L., 18, from Paris, after he failed to cooperate with authorities in an investigation related to a series of fake bomb threats that took place in France, but also in other countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, LeMonde reports.
Vincent L. is the owner of the website Darkness.su, which provides anonymous XMPP services for its users. According to French law enforcement, the service has been used by the Evacuation Squad, a group that has terrorized cities around the world by issuing fake bomb threats and sending SWAT teams to various celebrities and high-profile public figures (a phenomenon known as swatting).
The suspect was taken to police headquarters for questioning because he refused to provide police with the encryption necessary for officers to unlock the data on his laptop.
French investigators are desperately trying to find more information about the identity of the Evacuation Squad members. The Darkness.su website does not store chat logs or metadata exchanged through its servers for long
Investigators hope that Vincent L.'s laptop may hold this information, but the teenager refuses to cooperate.
The Evacuation Squad had been active in recent months, mainly through the @Ev4cuati0nSquad and @SwatTheW0rld Twitter accounts, which have now been suspended.
On January 26, the group posted a note on Pastebin (now deleted) stating that it would accept free requests until March 1, 2016, for locations where bomb threats. After March 1, the group announced that it would accept payments in Bitcoin for further fake bomb threats at specific targets.
The group charged $5 worth of Bitcoin for issuing fake bomb threats for schools and corporate headquarters, $10 worth of Bitcoin for courthouses and entire school districts, $20 worth of Bitcoin for sporting events and major conferences, and $50 worth of Bitcoin for “major” sporting events.
The Evacuation Squad was also open to issuing fake bomb threats and other types of events, for a negotiable fee. Plus, for an additional $5 in Bitcoin, the team would frame someone else for the incident!
All of this was allegedly done using the anonymous services Darkness.su to hack VoIP phones and place calls, hence the police's keen interest in Vincent L.'s laptop.
The group had two email addresses where people could contact them, one hosted on zmail.ru and the other on the darkness.su domain.
