Hacker Phineas Fisher arrested in Spain?

Has Phineas Fisher, the person (or group) behind the Gamma International and Hacking Team breaches and data leaks, been caught?

According to Catalan news outfit ARA, three people suspected of involvement in the May 2016 hack of Sindicat de Mossos d’Esquadra (the Catalan police union) have been arrested on Tuesday.

The breach in question has been claimed by Phineas Fisher, and resulted in the defacement of the union’s website, the publishing of personal information about police officers, and the hijacking of their Twitter account.

El Pais reported that the three arrested persons are of Spanish origin. The two arrested in Barcelona are a 31-year old man and his 35-year old partner, and the police believe them to be the ones behind the actual hack. The 33-year old arrested in Salamanca is suspected of having disseminated the stolen data online.

There is still no official confirmation from the police that one or all of the detainees are behind the Phineas Fisher online persona.

Phineas Fisher comments the arrests

Phineas Fisher must have felt that law enforcement was getting closer, as he deleted the Reddit account he used and all the Tweets from his Twitter account earlier this month.

But he did pipe up in the wake of the news of the arrests – or someone who has access to the email account he usually uses did.

“I think the Mossos just arrested some people that retweeted the link to their personal info, or maybe just arrested some activisty/anarchisty people to pretend they are doing something,” he claimed in an email sent to an anonymous Motherboard source.

Of course, it’s possible that Phineas Fisher is a group of hackers, and one of them is still at large.