Report that Spanish police arrest hacktivist Phineas Fisher disputed

Spanish police said Tuesday they were in the process of arresting the hacker known as Phineas Fisher, who has been credited with high-profile attacks of military spyware contractors. But someone using Phineas Fisher’s email address said they’ve got it wrong.

“I think [they] 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,” someone claiming to be Phineas Fisher wrote from an email address known to be used by the hacker.

Those comments were relayed via an anonymous intermediary to the publication Motherboard.

The Catalan newspaper ARA reported earlier in the day that one arrest has been made, with more to follow.

The arrests are related to a breach of the Catalan police union in 2016 that revealed names and other personal information from the police officers, ARA reported, citing sources close to the investigation.

{mosads}The police union hack was one of the less technically impressive attacks on Phineas Fisher’s resume. The hacker or hackers are best known for more high-value attacks on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AKP party and the European spyware contractors Hacking Team and Gamma.

The name Phineas Fisher is a reference to Gamma’s FinFisher product.

The Hacking Team breach, for which the hacker or hackers are best known, confirmed that the contractor had sold its wares to a number of oppressive regimes. Many countries have used spyware to spy on citizens, dissidents and journalists.

In the email printed by Motherboard, the hacker said he wanted the media to report that he was not in prison “so there doesn’t start a bunch of theories around my disappearance.”

Updated 5:28 p.m.