FRANKFURT, 30th May, 2024 (WAM) -- One of the largest crackdowns on cybercriminals has led to the seizure of more than 100 servers worldwide and the shutdown of 1,300 domains, according to investigators.
German news agency DPA reported that the public prosecutor's office in the German city of Frankfurt and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) announced the successful crackdown on Thursday morning.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser promptly praised the police operation as a concerted blow to criminals online. The scope of the operation "shows how hard we are hitting and the dimension we are dealing with here," Faeser said on Thursday.
She also credited the raids with destroying infrastructure used to launch so-called ransomware attacks which “are causing massive economic damage to German business.” Malware designed for unauthorised access to others' computers for criminal purposes was removed from the web, according to police.
"With the largest international cyber police operation to date, law enforcement authorities have dealt a significant blow to the cybercrime scene," BKA Vice President Martina Link was quoted in a press release as saying.
A total of 10 international arrest warrants were issued, and four people were provisionally arrested in an operation coordinated by German authorities. Germany has issued arrest warrants for a total of eight suspects.On the basis of the warrants, seven people are being sought who are "strongly suspected of having participated as members of a criminal organisation for the purpose of spreading the Trickbot malware," the investigators added.
The operation on Tuesday and Wednesday targeted 16 properties in Armenia, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Ukraine. Law enforcement officers from the Netherlands, France, Denmark, the UK, Austria and the US were involved in the operation.