Security News
Nearly four weeks after the Police Service of Northern Ireland published data on 10,000 employees in a botched response to a Freedom of Information request, another two men, aged 21 and 22, have been released on bail after being arrested under the Terrorism Act. On August 8, it mistakenly published a spreadsheet with the details of every serving Northern Ireland police officer online in response to a Freedom of Information request at the beginning of August.
An Interpol-led operation arrested 14 suspects and identified 20,674 "Suspicious" networks spanning 25 African countries that international cops have linked to more than $40 million in cybercrime losses. Police in Nigeria arrested a suspect who allegedly defrauded a victim in Gambia, and police in Mauritius arrested two suspected money mules linked to messaging platform scams.
An international law enforcement operation led by Interpol has led to the arrest of 14 suspected cybercriminals in an operation codenamed 'Africa Cyber Surge II,' launched in April 2023. Interpol has been actively fighting cybercrime in recent months, disrupting multi-million operations and seizing widely-used crime platforms.
Sam Bankman-Fried, former chief executive of crypto-disaster FTX, who has been awaiting trial for his firm's failure while in home detention with his family, has been sent to jail for attempting to intimidate witnesses. On Friday, at a hearing in New York City, Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked SBF's bail based on American prosecutors' concern that SBF was trying to tamper with the pending trial by sharing personal writings stored in Google Docs from Caroline Ellison, former CEO of FTX-affiliated Alameda Research and a former romantic partner, with the New York Times.
Interpol has announced the takedown of a phishing-as-a-service platform called 16Shop, in addition to the arrests of three individuals in Indonesia and Japan. 16Shop specialized in the sales of phishing kits that other cybercriminals can purchase to mount phishing attacks on a large scale, ultimately facilitating the theft of credentials and payment details from users of popular services such as Apple, PayPal, American Express, Amazon, and Cash App, among others.
The Spanish National Police has apprehended a Ukrainian national wanted internationally for his involvement in a scareware operation spanning from 2006 to 2011. "The operation has been carried out by investigators from the General Information Police Station in coordination with the Provincial Information Brigades of Tenerife and Barcelona and with the El Prat Airport Police Station," a Spanish National Police press release published on Saturday reads.
Law enforcement has detained a suspect believed to be a key member of the OPERA1ER cybercrime group, which has targeted mobile banking services and financial institutions in malware, phishing, and Business Email Compromise campaigns. The suspect was arrested by authorities in Côte d'Ivoire in early June following a joint law enforcement action dubbed Operation Nervone with the help of AFRIPOL, Interpol's Cybercrime Directorate, cybersecurity company Group-IB, and telecom carrier Orange.
Police breaking into and snooping on the EncroChat encrypted messaging network has led to 6,558 arrests worldwide and nearly €740 million seized in criminal funds, according to cops in France and the Netherlands. In 2020, the two countries led the effort to bust open the communications service, compromising the network's servers and using that access to collect data from EncroChat handsets.
Europol announced today that the takedown of the EncroChat encrypted mobile communications platform has led to the arrest of over 6,600 people and the seizure of $979 million in illicit funds. EncroChat phones ran a special, hardened version of Android that promised users unbreakable encryption, anonymity, and no traceability.
Worldwide, 6558 arrests follow the dismantling of EncroChat, a tool favored by organized crime groups. Nearly EUR 900 million in criminal funds have been seized or frozen.