International raid against cybercriminals: Three dangerous malware programmes shut down
A joint operation by European and American investigators has disabled three widely distributed malware families. Thousands of websites and hundreds of servers were taken offline in the process.
International raid against cybercriminals: Three dangerous malware programmes shut down
Investigators from Europe and the United States have jointly disabled three widely distributed malware families. Thousands of Internet presences and hundreds of servers were taken offline in the operation.
The programmes named SocGholish, StealC and Amadey served as gateways for digital extortion. Criminals used them to infect computers and subsequently inject extortion trojans or steal login credentials. Cities and companies had repeatedly become victims of such attacks.
The authorities shut down approximately 15,000 websites, more than 300 computers and over 140 Internet addresses. The aim was to sustainably destroy the technical infrastructure of the perpetrators.
In addition, investigators secured around 27 million stolen access credentials from over 385,000 victims. These can now be checked on public portals to determine whether their data has been affected. Furthermore, investigators found digital currencies worth more than 47 million dollars, which are presumed to come from criminal activities.
In the Federal Republic, proceedings are underway for organised and commercial extortion. Details were reported by tagesschau.de.
Source: Tagesschau