Europe, The Hague: Authorities arrested four people and shut down or disrupted more than 100 servers in “biggest ever” operation against botnets using ransomware, Europe said on Thursday.
The cleanup, dubbed Operation Endgame, was launched and led by France, Germany and the Netherlands, which French officials say they plan to implement before this summer’s Paris Olympics.
According to Opolevropa, the operation, which took place between 27 and 29 May, resulted in one arrest in Armenia and three arrests in Ukraine, and searches were conducted in two countries, the Netherlands and Portugal.
In addition to the four detainees, eight fugitives suspected in the case will be added to Europe’s most wanted list.
According to Europe, one of the suspects made at least 69 million euros ($75 million) by renting out sites from the criminal infrastructure to distribute paid software.
A botnet is a network of computers infected with malware and controlled by hackers.
The types of malware used to inject malware are IcedID, SystemBC, Picabot, Smokeloader, Bumblebee, and Trickbot.
Trickbot was used to launch paid attacks on US hospitals during the Covid pandemic.
According to Europe, the operation had a “global impact on the droplet ecosystem”.
According to the agency, the exploit allows criminals to bypass security measures and spread viruses, ransomware or malware.
