The alleged leader of a group using software to extort large sums of money from large companies (or “ransomware”) has been arrested in Ukraine, as have four of his main alleged accomplices, announced Europol. The European police organization said that around thirty homes had been searched on November 21 by Ukrainian, French, Norwegian, German and American investigators.
The targeted group had already been partly dismantled in 2021 by a previous international operation, but had been able to continue its activities. He is suspected of causing several hundred million euros in damage by encrypting the servers of several large companies, which have not been named, using known software, such as LockerGoga, MegaCortex, HIVE and Dharma.
This police operation, details Europol, is the culmination of an investigation launched in 2019 at the initiative of French investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Crime Related to Information and Communication Technologies (OCLCTIC) . The investigations benefited in particular from the technical analysis of machines seized during the 2021 searches, which made it possible to identify new suspects.
Contribute
The contributions area is reserved for subscribers.
Subscribe to access this exchange space and contribute to the discussion.