Interpol | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A coordinated law enforcement operation across 25 African countries has led to the arrest of 14 suspected cybercriminals, INTERPOL  announced  Friday. The exercise, conducted in partnership with AFRIPOL, enabled investigators to identify 20,674 cyber networks that were linked to financial losses of more than $40 million. "The four-month Africa Cyber Surge II operation was launched in April 2023 and focused on identifying cybercriminals and compromised infrastructure," the agency said. As part of the operation, three suspects were arrested in Cameroon in connection with an online scam involving the fraudulent sale of works of art worth $850,000. Another suspect was arrested in Nigeria for defrauding a Gambian victim. Also arrested were two money mules linked to scams initiated through messaging platforms. The cyber networks comprised 3,786 command-and-control (C2) servers, 14,134 victim IP addresses tied to data stealer infections, 1,415 phishing links and domains, 939

Interpol has announced the takedown of a phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform called 16Shop, in addition to the arrests of three individuals in Indonesia and Japan. 16Shop specialized in the sales of phishing kits that other cybercriminals can purchase to mount phishing attacks on a large scale, ultimately facilitating the theft of credentials and payment details from users of popular services such as Apple, PayPal, American Express, Amazon, and Cash App, among others. "Victims typically receive an email with a pdf file or link that redirects to a site requesting the victims' credit card or other personally identifiable information," Interpol  said . "This information is then stolen and used to extract money from the victims." No less than 70,000 users across 43 countries are estimated to have been compromised via services offered on 16Shop. The law enforcement operation has also led to the arrest of the site's administrator, a 21-year-old Indonesian

Ambitious Employees Tout New AI Tools, Ignore Serious SaaS Security Risks Like the  SaaS shadow IT  of the past, AI is placing CISOs and cybersecurity teams in a tough but familiar spot.  Employees are covertly using AI  with little regard for established IT and cybersecurity review procedures. Considering  ChatGPT's meteoric rise to 100 million users within 60 days of launch , especially with little sales and marketing fanfare, employee-driven demand for AI tools will only escalate.  As new studies show  some workers boost productivity by 40% using generative AI , the pressure for CISOs and their teams to fast-track AI adoption — and turn a blind eye to unsanctioned AI tool usage — is intensifying.  But succumbing to these pressures can introduce serious SaaS data leakage and breach risks, particularly as employees flock to AI tools developed by small businesses, solopreneurs, and indie developers. AI Security Guide Download AppOmni's CISO Guide to AI Security - Part 1 AI evoke

A suspected senior member of a French-speaking hacking crew known as OPERA1ER has been arrested as part of an international law enforcement operation codenamed Nervone, Interpol has announced. "The group is believed to have stolen an estimated USD 11 million -- potentially as much as 30 million -- in more than 30 attacks across 15 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America," the agency  said . The arrest was made by authorities in Côte d'Ivoire early last month. Additional insight was provided by the U.S. Secret Service's Criminal Investigative Division and Booz Allen Hamilton DarkLabs. The financially motivated collective is also known by the aliases Common Raven, DESKTOP-GROUP, and NX$M$. Its modus operandi was  first exposed  by Group-IB and Orange CERT Coordination Center (Orange-CERT-CC) in November 2022, detailing its intrusions on banks, financial services, and telecom companies between March 2018 and October 2022. Earlier this January, Broadcom's S

Interpol on Thursday  announced  the seizure of $130 million worth of virtual assets in connection with a global crackdown on cyber-enabled financial crimes and money laundering. The international police operation, dubbed  HAECHI-III , transpired between June 28 and November 23, 2022, resulting in the arrests of 975 individuals and the closure of more than 1,600 cases. This comprised two fugitives wanted by South Korea for their supposed involvement in a Ponzi scheme to embezzle €28 million from 2,000 victims. Another instance pertained to a call center scam based out of India, wherein a group of criminals impersonated Interpol and Europol officers to trick victims in Austria into transferring funds. The call centers operated from New Delhi and Noida. The illegal activity informed the victims that their "identities were stolen and crime pertaining to narcotics drugs were committed in their names," forcing them to make a money transfer. "In order to clear themselve

The International Criminal Police Organization, also called the Interpol, has announced the arrests of 75 individuals as part of a coordinated global operation against an organized cyber crime syndicate called  Black Axe . "'Black Axe' and other West African organized crime groups have developed transnational networks, defrauding victims of millions while channeling their profits into lavish lifestyles and other criminal activities, from drug trafficking to sexual exploitation," the agency  said . The law enforcement effort, codenamed Operation Jackal, involved the participation of Argentina, Australia, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, the U.A.E, the U.K., and the U.S. Black Axe, which originated as a confraternity in Nigeria around 1977 before evolving into a mafia group, has not only been linked to killing and scamming operations, but also has been accused of infiltrating the country's political s

Interpol on Monday announced the arrest of three suspected global scammers in Nigeria for using remote access trojans (RATs) such as Agent Tesla to facilitate malware-enabled cyber fraud. "The men are thought to have used the RAT to reroute financial transactions, stealing confidential online connection details from corporate organizations, including oil and gas companies in South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa," the International Criminal Police Organization  said  in a statement. One of the scammers in question, named Hendrix Omorume, has been charged and convicted of three counts of financial fraud and has been sentenced to a 12-month prison term. The two other suspects are still on trial. The three Nigerian individuals, who are aged between 31 and 38, have been apprehended for being in possession of fake documents such as fraudulent invoices and forged official letters. The law enforcement said that the suspects systematically used Agent Tesla to breach

A joint four-month operation coordinated by Interpol, the international criminal police organization, has culminated in the arrests of more than 1,000 cybercriminals and the recovery of $27 million in illicit proceeds. Codenamed " HAECHI-II ," the crackdown enabled law enforcement units from across 20 countries, as well as Hong Kong and Macao, close 1,660 cases alongside blocking 2,350 bank accounts linked to the fraudulent illicit funds amassed from a range of online financial crimes, such as romance scams, investment fraud, and money laundering associated with illegal online gambling. "The results of Operation HAECHI-II show that the surge in online financial crime generated by the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of waning,"  said  Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock in a press statement issued on November 26. The coordinated law enforcement probe took place over a period of four months, starting from June 2021 until September 2021, with ten new criminal