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Law enforcement authorities in seven African countries have arrested 306 suspects and confiscated 1,842 devices as part of an international operation codenamed Red Card that took place between November 2024 and February 2025. The coordinated effort "aims to disrupt and dismantle cross-border criminal networks which cause significant harm to individuals and businesses," INTERPOL said , adding it focused on targeted mobile banking, investment, and messaging app scams. The cyber-enabled scams involved more than 5,000 victims. The countries that participated in the operation include Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo, and Zambia. "The success of Operation Red Card demonstrates the power of international cooperation in combating cybercrime, which knows no borders and can have devastating effects on individuals and communities," Neal Jetton, INTERPOL's Director of the Cybercrime Directorate, said. "The recovery of significant asse...

From sophisticated nation-state campaigns to stealthy malware lurking in unexpected places, this week's cybersecurity landscape is a reminder that attackers are always evolving. Advanced threat groups are exploiting outdated hardware, abusing legitimate tools for financial fraud, and finding new ways to bypass security defenses. Meanwhile, supply chain threats are on the rise, with open-source repositories becoming a playground for credential theft and hidden backdoors. But it's not all bad news—law enforcement is tightening its grip on cybercriminal networks, with key ransomware figures facing extradition and the security community making strides in uncovering and dismantling active threats. Ethical hackers continue to expose critical flaws, and new decryptors offer a fighting chance against ransomware operators. In this week's recap, we dive into the latest attack techniques, emerging vulnerabilities, and defensive strategies to keep you ahead of the curve. Stay informed, stay sec...

A 51-year-old dual Russian and Israeli national who is alleged to be a developer of the LockBit ransomware group has been extradited to the United States, nearly three months after he was formally charged in connection with the e-crime scheme. Rostislav Panev  was previously arrested in Israel in August 2024. He is said to have been working as a developer for the ransomware gang from 2019 to February 2024, when the operation's online infrastructure was seized in a law enforcement exercise. "Rostislav Panev's extradition to the District of New Jersey makes it clear: if you are a member of the LockBit ransomware conspiracy, the United States will find you and bring you to justice," said United States Attorney John Giordano. LockBit grew to become one of the most prolific ransomware groups, attacking more than 2,500 entities in at least 120 countries around the world. Nearly 1,800 of those were located in the United States. Victims consisted of individuals and ...

Cyber threats today don't just evolve—they mutate rapidly, testing the resilience of everything from global financial systems to critical infrastructure. As cybersecurity confronts new battlegrounds—ranging from nation-state espionage and ransomware to manipulated AI chatbots—the landscape becomes increasingly complex, prompting vital questions: How secure are our cloud environments? Can our IoT devices be weaponized unnoticed? What happens when cybercriminals leverage traditional mail for digital ransom? This week's events reveal a sobering reality: state-sponsored groups are infiltrating IT supply chains, new ransomware connections are emerging, and attackers are creatively targeting industries previously untouched. Moreover, global law enforcement actions highlight both progress and persistent challenges in countering cybercrime networks. Dive into this edition to understand the deeper context behind these developments and stay informed about threats that continue reshap...

A coalition of international law enforcement agencies has seized the website associated with the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex ("garantex[.]org"), nearly three years after the service was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April 2022. "The domain for Garantex has been seized by the United States Secret Service pursuant to a seizure warrant obtained by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia under the authority of 18 U.S.C. §§ 981 and 982," reads a seizure banner on the website. The operation was carried out in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol, the Dutch National Police, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt aka BKA), the Frankfurt General Prosecutor's Office, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, and the Estonian National Criminal Police. Founded in 2019, Garantex was previously subject to U....

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has announced charges against 12 Chinese nationals for their alleged participation in a wide-ranging scheme designed to steal data and suppress free speech and dissent globally. The individuals include two officers of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) Ministry of Public Security (MPS), eight employees of an ostensibly private PRC company, Anxun Information Technology Co. Ltd. (安洵信息技术有限公司) also known as i-Soon , and members of Advanced Persistent Threat 27 ( APT27 , aka Budworm, Bronze Union, Emissary Panda, Lucky Mouse, and Iron Tiger) - Wu Haibo (吴海波), Chief Executive Officer Chen Cheng (陈诚), Chief Operating Officer Wang Zhe (王哲), Sales Director Liang Guodong (梁国栋), Technical Staff Ma Li (马丽), Technical Staff Wang Yan (王堰), Technical Staff Xu Liang (徐梁), Technical Staff Zhou Weiwei (周伟伟), Technical Staff Wang Liyu (王立宇), MPS Officer Sheng Jing (盛晶), MPS Officer Yin Kecheng (尹可成), APT27 actor aka "YKC" Zhou Sh...

In 2024, global ransomware attacks hit 5,414, an 11% increase from 2023.  After a slow start, attacks spiked in Q2 and surged in Q4, with 1,827 incidents (33% of the year's total). Law enforcement actions against major groups like LockBit caused fragmentation, leading to more competition and a rise in smaller gangs. The number of active ransomware groups jumped 40%, from 68 in 2023 to 95 in 2024. New Ransomware Groups to Watch In 2023 there were just 27 new groups. 2024 saw a dramatic rise with 46 new groups detected. As the year went on the number of groups accelerated with Q4 2024 having 48 groups active.  Of the 46 new ransomware groups in 2024, RansomHub became dominant, exceeding LockBit's activity. At Cyberint, now a Check Point Company, the research team is constantly researching the latest ransomware groups and analyzing them for potential impact. This blog will look at 3 new players, the aforementioned RansomHub, Fog and Lynx and examine their impact in 202...

Source: The Nation A coordinated law enforcement operation has taken down the dark web data leak and negotiation sites associated with the 8Base ransomware gang. Visitors to the data leak site are now greeted with a seizure banner that says: "This hidden site and the criminal content have been seized by the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office on behalf of the Office of the Public Prosecutor General in Bamberg." The takedown involved the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA), the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Europol, as well as agencies from Bavaria, Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Japan, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, and Thailand. Thai media reports have revealed that four European nationals – two men and two women – were arrested across four different locations on Monday as part of an effort codenamed Operation Phobos Aetor. The identities of the suspects were not disclosed. Authorities are said to have seized more than 40 pieces of evidence, including ...

Ransomware attacks netted cybercrime groups a total of $813.5 million in 2024, a decline from $1.25 billion in 2023. The total amount extorted during the first half of 2024 stood at $459.8 million, blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis said, adding payment activity slumped after July 2024 by about 3.94%. "The number of ransomware events increased into H2, but on-chain payments declined, suggesting that more victims were targeted, but fewer paid," the company said . Adding to the challenges is an increasingly fragmented ransomware ecosystem, which, in the wake of the collapse of LockBit and BlackCat, has led to the emergence of a lot of newcomers that have eschewed big game hunting in favor of small- to mid-size entities that, in turn, translate to more modest ransom demands. According to data compiled by Coveware, the average ransomware payment in Q4 2024 was at $553,959, up from $479,237 in Q3 . The median ransomware payment, in contrast, dropped from $200,000 to $...

U.S. and Dutch law enforcement agencies have announced that they have dismantled 39 domains and their associated servers as part of efforts to disrupt a network of online marketplaces originating from Pakistan. The action, which took place on January 29, 2025, has been codenamed Operation Heart Blocker. The vast array of sites in question peddled phishing toolkits and fraud-enabling tools and was operated by a group known as Saim Raza since at least 2020, which is also known as HeartSender. These offerings were then used by transnational organized crime groups to target several victims in the United States as part of various business email compromise ( BEC ) schemes, leading to losses totaling over $3 million. "The Saim Raza-run websites operated as marketplaces that advertised and facilitated the sale of tools such as phishing kits, scam pages, and email extractors, often used to build and maintain fraud operations," the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said . "N...

An international law enforcement operation has dismantled the domains associated with various online platforms linked to cybercrime such as Cracked, Nulled, Sellix, and StarkRDP. The effort, which took place between January 28 and 30, 2025, targeted the following domains - www.cracked.io www.nulled.to www.mysellix.io www.sellix.io www.starkrdp.io Visitors to these websites are now greeted by a seizure banner that says they were confiscated as part of Operation Talent that involved authorities from Australia, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, and the United States, along with Europol. "This website, as well as the information on the customers and victims of the website, has been seized by international law enforcement partners," the message reads. Operational since at 2015 and 2018, both Nulled and Cracked have been used to peddle various hack tools, such as ScrubCrypt, a malware obfuscation engine that has been observed delivering stealer malware in the pas...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday disclosed that a court-authorized operation allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to delete PlugX malware from over 4,250 infected computers as part of a "multi-month law enforcement operation." PlugX, also known as Korplug, is a remote access trojan (RAT) widely used by threat actors associated with the People's Republic of China (PRC), allowing for information theft and remote control of compromised devices. An affidavit filed by the FBI noted that the identified PlugX variant is linked to a state-sponsored hacking group called Mustang Panda , which is also referred to as BASIN, Bronze President, Camaro Dragon, Earth Preta, HoneyMyte, RedDelta, Red Lich, Stately Taurus, TA416, and Twill Typhoon. "Since at least 2014, Mustang Panda hackers then infiltrated thousands of computer systems in campaigns targeting U.S. victims, as well as European and Asian governments and businesses, and Chinese dissident...

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU or SSU) has exposed a novel espionage campaign suspected to be orchestrated by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) that involves recruiting Ukrainian minors for criminal activities under the guise of "quest games." Law enforcement officials said that it detained two FSB agent groups following a special operation in Kharkiv . These groups, per the agency, consisted exclusively of children aged 15 and 16. "The minors carried out hostile tasks of conducting reconnaissance, correcting strikes, and arson," the SSU said in a statement released Friday. "To mask subversive activities, both enemy cells operated separately from each other." As per the quest game rules set by the FSB, the children were given geographic coordinates, after which they were instructed to get to the location, take photos and videos of targets, and provide a general description of the surrounding area. The results of these reconnaissance m...

Belgian and Dutch authorities have arrested eight suspects in connection with a "phone phishing" gang that primarily operated out of the Netherlands with an aim to steal victims' financial data and funds. As part of the international operation, law enforcement agencies carried out 17 searches in different locations in Belgium and the Netherlands, Europol said. In addition, large amounts of cash, firearm, as well as electronic devices, luxury watches, and jewelry have been seized. "Besides committing large-scale 'phishing' campaigns and trying to gain access to financial data by phone or online, the suspects also pretended to be police or banking staff and approached older victims at their doors," the agency said . The cybercrime operation involved sending phishing messages via email, SMS, and WhatsApp, urging recipients to click on a link that captured the credentials and other information. In other instances, victims were approached by the crimina...

Europol on Thursday announced the shutdown of a clearnet marketplace called Manson Market that facilitated online fraud on a large scale. The operation, led by German authorities, has resulted in the seizure of more than 50 servers associated with the service and the arrest of two suspects. More than 200 terabytes of digital evidence have been collected. In addition, over 80 data storage devices, cell phones, computers, as well as cash and crypto assets worth more than €63,000 ($66,500) have been confiscated. Manson Market ("manson-market[.]pw") is believed to have launched in 2022 as a way to peddle sensitive information that was illegally obtained from victims as part of phishing and vishing (voice phishing) schemes. One such criminal activity involved calling victims under the guise of bank employees to trick them into revealing their addresses and security answers. In another instance, a network of fake online shops was employed to deceive visitors into entering th...