Security News > 2023 > February > Dutch Police arrest three ransomware actors extorting €2.5 million
The Amsterdam cybercrime police team has arrested three men for ransomware activity that generated €2.5 million from extorting small and large organizations in multiple countries.
The extortion involved threats of leaking the data or destroying the company's digital infrastructure.
The Dutch police say that even when victims paid the ransom, the hackers still sold the stolen data online for extra profit.
"The cybercrime team started the investigation in March 2021 in response to a declaration of data theft and threat to a large Dutch company," reads the police announcement.
"As the research progressed, it has become clear that probably thousands of small and large companies and institutions, both nationally and internationally, have fallen victim to computer breach from the trio in recent years, followed by theft and selling of their data" - Dutch Police.
Amsterdam's cybercrime unit has noticed a worrying trend among data brokers who now process stolen data to refine the records and make the databases easily searchable.