Security News > 2022 > January > Husband-Wife Arrested in Ukraine for Ransomware Attacks on Foreign Companies

Ukrainian police authorities have nabbed five members of a gang that's believed to have helped orchestrate attacks against more than 50 companies across Europe and the U.S and caused losses to the tune of more than $1 million.

The Cyber Police of the National Police of Ukraine said the group offered a "Hacker service" that enabled financially motivated crime syndicates to send phishing emails containing file-encrypted malware to lock confidential data pertaining to its victims, demanding that the targets pay cryptocurrency ransoms in return for restoring access to the files.

Besides ransomware attacks on foreign companies, the hacking cartel also provided IP-address spoofing services to transnational cybercrime actors, who unlawfully used the platform to break into systems belonging to government and commercial entities to collect sensitive information and carry out DDoS attacks to paralyze the networks.

"To launder criminal proceeds, the offenders conducted complex financial transactions using a number of online services, including those banned in Ukraine," Ukraine's Secret Service said.

The development is the latest in a string of law enforcement actions undertaken by Ukraine over the past year to tackle the menace of ransomware that's crippled organizations and critical infrastructure alike.

Last month, authorities apprehended 51 people in connection with illegally possessing about 100 databases containing personal information of more than 300 million citizens of Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S. Prior to that, the National Police of Ukraine was also involved in the arrest of ransomware affiliates associated with Egregor, Cl0p, LockerGoga, MegaCortex, and Dharma families as well as individuals who were found operating a DDoS botnet and a phishing service called U-Admin.

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https://thehackernews.com/2022/01/husband-wife-arrested-in-ukraine-for.html