Security News
The European police force stated the ransomware activities targeted critical infrastructures and mostly large corporations. Europol, the European police agency, announced today the arrests of 12 people involved in ransomware activities across the world.
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.
Law enforcement agencies in Italy and Spain have dismantled an organized crime group linked to the Italian Mafia that was involved in online fraud, money laundering, drug trafficking, and property crime, netting the gang about €10 million in illegal proceeds in just a year. "The suspects defrauded hundreds of victims through phishing attacks and other types of online fraud such as SIM swapping and business email compromise before laundering the money through a wide network of money mules and shell companies," Europol said in a statement published today.
International law enforcement has busted up an extensive cybercrime operation run by a gang with ties to the Italian Mafia. The suspects used various lures to convince victims to wire money to bank accounts controlled by the criminal network, according to Europol.
In collaboration with Europol and Eurojust, European law enforcement dismantled an extensive network of cybercriminals linked to the Italian Mafia that was able to defraud their victims of roughly €10 million last year alone. "The Spanish National Police, supported by the Italian National Police, Europol and Eurojust, dismantled an organised crime group linked to the Italian Mafia involved in online fraud, money laundering, drug trafficking and property crime," the Europol said today.
Europol's Serious Organized Crime Threat Assessment report 2021 summarizes the criminal threat of the last four years and provides insights into what to expect over the next four years. Organized crime is not limited to cybercrime, but cybercrime has become a major part of organized criminal activity.
Europol launched "Major interventions" against organized crime on March 9, which it said were made possible by monitoring the encrypted messages of around 70,000 users of the Sky ECC service since mid-February. Europol said Sky ECC has about 170,000 users who send around 3 million messages every day, adding that 20 percent of those users are in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Image: Sky ECC. European law enforcement authorities have made a large number of arrests after a joint operation involving the monitoring of organized crime communication channels after "Unlocking" Sky ECC chat's encryption. The investigation started after Belgium police seized mobile phones from criminals who used Sky ECC. After "Unlocking" the chat platform's encryption, investigators have been able to monitor communications between roughly 70,000 Sky ECC users.
If you've followed the history of malware in recent years, you will definitely have heard of Emotet, and you'll have a very good idea of what happens next to Emotet victims if the malware breaches their defences. The macros used by Emotet documents are the opening gambit in the malware attack, and they initiate the next stage of the infection, typically launching a heavily disguised PowerShell command to download and implant the Emotet malware program itself.
Law enforcement has started to distribute an Emotet module to infected devices that will uninstall the malware on April 25th, 2021. Today, Europol announced the disruption of the infamous Emotet email spamming botnet used to distribute malicious Word spam attachments that install malware such as TrickBot and Qbot.