Cybercriminal who stole personal data through malicious applications arrested in Azerbaijan

The Sabail District Court of Baku has chosen a preventive measure in the form of arrest for Azerbaijani citizen Nihad Hajiyev Akhmed oglu, a defendant in a criminal case investigated by the State Security Service (SSS). As Report informs, Hajiyev was involved in the creation and management of a darknet-type Internet resource, which distributed personal data and other information prohibited from distribution by law. He was arrested as one of the members of a group of cybercriminals exposed during operational and technical measures carried out by the SSS.

In particular, Hajiyev, together with other persons associated with him, organized cyber attacks on the information portal “xeberoxu.az” and other sites, gained illegal control over this site and changed the content of the news posted on it, illegally obtained people’s personal data by downloading mobile applications with malicious code to their mobile phones, such as “Çarxla Qazan.apk”, “Paypal.apk” and others.

Hajiyev also acquired domains that were similar in appearance to the official websites of a number of companies and organizations operating in Azerbaijan – “İrşad Electronics”, “Baku Electronics”, “Xalq Bank”, etc. – and created fake pages, passing them off on social networks as real ones. Under the pretext of advertising campaigns and discounts, he massively collected personal data of users.

The group members used Call Spoofing technologies – tools that allow you to forge phone numbers and send SMS on behalf of real companies in order to mislead people. They also organized the sale of such illegal online services.

The Sabail District Court has chosen a preventive measure in the form of arrest for a period of 3 months against Nihad Hajiyev.

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