German police announced on Monday that they had dismantled an organized international cybercrime network that had blackmailed several major companies and institutions for years and managed to steal millions of euros.
The operation, carried out in collaboration with the European Union Agency for Police Cooperation (Europol), the United States Federal Police (FBI) and Ukrainian authorities, managed to identify 11 people associated with a group that committed crimes since at least 2010.
One of the most well-known victims is Düsseldorf University Hospital, whose computers were infected in 2020 with a type of ‘ransomware’ (a malicious ‘software’ that hijacks data for later charging) known as DoppelPaymer.
This operation by the organized group led to the death of a woman, who needed urgent treatment but had to be taken to another city for treatment.
According to the coordinator of the cybercrime department of the German state police in North Rhine-Westphalia, Dirk Kunze, 601 victims have been identified worldwide, of which 37 in Germany.
According to Europol, victims in the United States paid at least €40 million to the organized network between May 2019 and March 2021.
The network specialized in “big yachts,” Kunze explains, adding that the group ran a professional recruiting operation, recruiting new members with the promise of paid vacations and asking applicants to provide references of past cybercrime.
The coordinator of the North Rhine-Westphalia state police also said the operation was accompanied by simultaneous raids in Germany and Ukraine carried out on February 28, resulting in the seizure of evidence and the arrest of several suspects.
Another three suspects – two of whom are Russian citizens – could not be detained because they were outside the jurisdiction of European authorities, Dirk Kunze said.
Source: DN
