Security News > 2021 > October > Europol announces two more ransomware busts in Ukraine

The BFG is back, but thankfully it wasn't needed inside what looks like a rather modern and upmarket apartment block, because the suspects gingerly opened the door of their own accord when they heard the police outside.

The report doesn't list which cryptocurrencies were frozen, and doesn't say whether those assets might ever actually be reclaimable if the suspects are ultimately convicted.

As an analogy, imagine that the police had a warrant to seize the ATM card needed to withdraw stolen money from a suspect's bank account, but they didn't have the PIN for the card, and the bank was unable to release the funds any other way, warrant or not.

The funds would be off-limits not only to the suspect, but also to everyone else involved.

Two $100,000 cars were towed away, too, and two suspects arrested.

We don't even know which ransomware gang these suspects were affiliated with, but the mention of ransom demands as high as EUR 70,000,000 in Europol's press release has led to some reporters inferring that these busts must be connected to the infamous Kaseya breach, where crooks used bugs in Kaseya's network management tools to break into not one but many networks at the same time.

News URL

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2021/10/05/europol-announces-two-more-ransomware-busts-in-ukraine/