Hamza Bendelladj

Biography

Hamza Bendelladj is an Algerian computer hacker who is known to have hacked the American banks and robbed millions, according to some speculations up to $280 billion. More authentic records estimate the total value of his fraud at $10 Million.

Childhood

Hamza Bendelladj was born on 3rd June 1988 in Tizi Ouzou, Kouba, Algeria. 

He used Trojan Horse virus to steal the passwords, he would install the virus into other people's computer and steal their login information, and later use it to transfer the money.

Education

• University of Bab Ezzouar: He has a Bachelors in Science & Technology from University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene. He is believed to have a degree in computer science as well.
• University of Sutton: He is an alma mater from the University of Sutton.

Hacking- Arrest- Extradition- Conviction

Hacking & Selling spyware

He co-created the software called SpyEye, which he is alleged to have stolen the money from the banks. He has also sold the software to other hackers in the market, it was used as a part of Botnet. It is believed that the virus affected as many as 50 million computers. The software is still said to be available on black market for about $10,000.

He used Automated Transfer system (along with Zues Trojan) to transfer the money automatically into his account once the account login information was gathered & the account was hacked.

Arrest & Extradition

He was caught by an undercover agent who was posing to be an underground hacker buying the software from Hamza. Hamza allegedly sold a copy of the SpyEye to the agent for $8500. [3]

Hamza was arrested in 2013 in Thailand, at the Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport while travelling back from Malaysia to his home country Algeria. Unfortunately for him Thailand has extradition treaty with the United States, thus he was transferred to the United States for trial of his crimes, he was imprisoned in the United States on charges of unethical hacking, his case was heard in the court. 

Multiple international security agencies operated together, exchanging sensitive details ti catch him. United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, the Royal Thai Police (Thailand), the National Police of the Netherlands, Dominican Republic’s Departamento Nacional de Investigaciones, the Cybercrime Department at the State Agency for National Security-Bulgaria, and the Australian Federal Police and a few other private agencies worked together. [4]

Extradition: He was extradited to the USA in May 2013. he was tried in the Atlanta court, where he pleaded guilty of the crimes on 25th June 2015. The court imposed a fine of 14 million dollars and 30 years imprisonment.

His partner in crime, Aleksandr Andreevich Panin was arrested in July 2013, he also pleaded guilty in January 2014 in front of the Atlanta Federal Court.

Sentence

In April 2016, US court Judge Totenberg sentenced him to 15 years in jail and 3 years of probation. His accomplice Panin was sentence to 9 years and 6 months of imprisonment. Hamza was represented by court appointed lawyer Jay L. Strongwater of Atlanta.

Death Rumors: There is no truth to the claims claiming he is sentenced to death. U.S ambassador in Algeria clarified in an Arabic tweet that "There is no capital punishment for computer crimes in the law of United States." Pictures of a public hanging incident from Iran was mistaken for Hamza's execution.

Robin hood hacker

A twitter account supporting Hamza claimed he had donated $280 Billion from Israel and West and had transferred it to Palestinian charities, thus the nickname Robin hood hacker by his fans. It seems to be a claim by a Palestinian supporter and the statement needs to be factually supported.

Some of his supporters from Algeria & the Hacking world around, hacked Air France and Virginia University websites to show their support and demanded his release. #FreePalestine, #FreeHamzaBendellaj hashtags trended on social media in his support.

Interesting Facts

• Code names: Some of the code names he has used are- Bx1, Daniel HB.
• A Polyglot: He is versed in multiple languages, can speak five languages fluently.  Berber, Arabic, French, English are some of the languages he can speak. [1]
• Interpol top 10 most wanted list: He was in the top 10 most wanted cyber criminals list of interpol and the FBI. [1]
• Smiling Hacker: He is popularly known as Smiling Hacker for his smiling baby face.
• Darkode.com: He was a member of Darkode.com, an underground group of unethical hackers, about which the US attorney Hickton said "Of the roughly 800 criminal Internet forums worldwide, Darkode represented one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers in the United States and around the world and was the most sophisticated English-speaking forum for criminal computer hackers in the world” [2]
• He is believed to have hacked 217 different banks & institutions.
• He was part of the duo, another half was a Russian hacker named Aleksandr Andreevich Panin (AKA Gribodemon). He was arrested in 2013 when he was flying over Atlanta, Georgia in an international flight.
• Aleksandr Panin & Hamza Bendelladj were considered legends in the dark world of hackers, police took it as a chance to teach others a lesson.
• Instagram account: there is a very popular instagram account in his name, with just one picture of his in it, it has a following of 2 Million.
• 39 dangerous hacker: He was one of the 39 unethical hackers list submitted by Microsoft to the United States police.
• Changing identity: He changed his Iphone mobile IMEI Number every Day to remain anonymous.
• Computer maintenance: He worked as a computer maintenance guy for three years.
• He is believed to be married and have a child with the wife.
• Luxurious Life: He lived a luxurious life travelling first class and staying in grand hotels.
• Algerian academics praised him as a hero and supported him.
• Mr.Robot: After the TV series on a young hacker became famous, some of the fans of the show started comparing the character to Hamza. They starting calling Hamza- "The real life Mr. Robot"
• Public support: There was decent support on the social media for his release, "his skills should be used to fight crime, not put in jail" argued some of his followers. The facebook fan groups tried to pressurize the Algerian foreign ministry for his release through President Barack Obama's intervention, it didn't work out.
• UK Parliament petitions: There were petitions on the UK parliament website to save Hamza from death penalty (There is no death penalty in the US for cyber crimes). It ran for 6 months and closed.

Sources

1. Hamza Bendelladj Wiki
2. Darkode dismantling
3. Hamza Bendelladj onAljazeera
4. International security agencies co-operate to catch Hamza
5.