Criminal gang behind ‘world’s biggest’ ransomware LockBit taken down: Europol

ROME

Law enforcement authorities from 10 countries disrupted the “world’s biggest” ransomware criminal operation behind LockBit, causing damages worth billions of dollars, Europol said Tuesday.

After a month-long operation, authorities compromised LockBit’s primary platform and other critical infrastructure that enabled their criminal enterprise.

They took down 34 servers in the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, France, Switzerland, Australia, the US and UK, Europol said.

They also arrested two alleged “LockBit actors” in Poland and Ukraine at the request of the French judicial authorities, it said.

Three international arrest warrants and five indictments have also been issued by the French and US judicial authorities.

The international sweep also included the freezing of more than 200 cryptocurrency accounts linked to the alleged criminal organization.

“This investigation shows that law enforcement has the capabilities to disrupt high harm cybercriminals and reduce the ransomware threat,” Europol said in a statement.

“However, continued victim and private sector engagement is key to us continuing this work,” it added.

This international operation followed a complex investigation led by the UK National Crime Agency in the framework of an international task force known as Operation Cronos, coordinated at the European level by Europol and Eurojust.

The UK's National Crime Agency has now taken control of the technical infrastructure that allows all elements of the LockBit service to operate, as well as their leak site on the dark web, on which they previously hosted the data stolen from victims in ransomware attacks, Europol added.