Arrest
Operation PowerOFF shuts down 27 DDoS-for-hire platforms
Law enforcement agencies from 15 countries have taken 27 DDoS-for-hire services offline, also known as “booters” or “stressers,” arrested three administrators, and identified 300 customers of the platforms. The action is part of ‘Operation PowerOFF,’ an international initiative to combat cybercrime, specifically distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. DDoS-for-hire services are platforms that utilize botnets on compromised […]
Cybercrime gang arrested after turning Airbnbs into fraud centers
Eight members of an international cybercrime network that stole millions of Euros from victims and set up Airbnb fraud centers were arrested in Belgium and the Netherlands. The action was announced by Europol, which coordinated the operation, involving 17 simultaneous searches in the two countries, taking place on December 3. The arrests were the culmination of investigations […]
Police shuts down Manson cybercrime market, arrests key suspects
German law enforcement has seized over 50 servers that hosted the Manson Market cybercrime marketplace and fake online shops used in phishing operations. Two main suspects (currently in pretrial detention) believed to be Manson Market’s operators have been arrested in Germany and Austria under European arrest warrants on Wednesday in an operation led by the […]
Police seizes largest German online crime marketplace, arrests admin
Germany has taken down the largest online cybercrime marketplace in the country, named “Crimenetwork,” and arrested its administrator for facilitating the sale of drugs, stolen data, and illegal services. The law enforcement action was carried out on Monday by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Frankfurt am Main, the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT), and the Federal […]
Police seize Matrix encrypted chat service after spying on criminals
An international law enforcement operation codenamed ‘Operation Passionflower’ has shut down MATRIX, an encrypted messaging platform used by cybercriminals to coordinate illegal activities while evading police. It should be noted that MATRIX is a different entity from the secure open-source, decentralized, real-time communications protocol with the same name, which is perfectly legal to continue using. The […]
Korea arrests CEO for adding DDoS feature to satellite receivers
South Korean police have arrested a CEO and five employees for manufacturing over 240,000 satellite receivers pre-loaded or later updated to include DDoS attack functionality at a purchaser’s request. While neither company has been named, the two companies have been trading since 2017. In November 2018, the purchasing company made a special request to include […]
Russia arrests cybercriminal Wazawaka for ties with ransomware gangs
Russian law enforcement has arrested and indicted notorious ransomware affiliate Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev (also known as Wazawaka, Uhodiransomwar, m1x, and Boriselcin) for developing malware and his involvement in several hacking groups. While the prosecutor’s office has yet to release any details on the individual’s identity (described as a “programmer” in court documents), the individual is […]
Interpol disrupts cybercrime activity on 22,000 IP addresses, arrests 41
Interpol announced it arrested 41 individuals and taken down 1,037 servers and infrastructure running on 22,000 IP addresses facilitating cybercrime in an international law enforcement action titled Operation Synergia II. The operation took place between April and August 2024, spanning 95 countries and resulting in 41 arrests of those linked to various crimes, including ransomware, […]
Suspect behind Snowflake data-theft attacks arrested in Canada
Canadian authorities have arrested a man suspected of having stolen the data of hundreds of millions after targeting over 165 organizations, all of them customers of cloud storage company Snowflake. According to Canada’s Department of Justice, Alexander “Connor” Moucka (aka “Waifu” and “Judische”) was taken into custody on Wednesday at the request of the United States […]
DDoS site Dstat.cc seized and two suspects arrested in Germany
The Dstat.cc DDoS review platform has been seized by law enforcement, and two suspects have been arrested after the service helped fuel distributed denial-of-service attacks for years. The seizure and arrests were conducted as part of “Operation PowerOFF,” an ongoing international law enforcement operation that targets DDoS-for-hire platforms, aka “booters” or “stressers,” to seize infrastructure and […]