An international police operation has conducted an operation against a group of cybercriminals behind a spate of ransomware attacks.

According to Europol, 12 individuals have been targeted, with property searched and seized, though the group did not specify if this means the suspects have been arrested or charged. Among the items seized include $52,000 in cash, along with five luxury vehicles.

The actions took place on October 26th in Ukraine and Switzerland.

According to Europol: “Most of these suspects are considered high-value targets because they are being investigated in multiple high-profile cases in different jurisdictions.

“The targeted suspects all had different roles in these professional, highly organised criminal organisations. Some of these criminals were dealing with the penetration effort, using multiple mechanisms to compromise IT networks, including brute force attacks, SQL injections, stolen credentials and phishing emails with malicious attachments.”

The cybercriminals have allegedly been targeting critical infrastructure providers with ransomware since at least 2019. Their targets are typically large corporations. In addition to hacking companies, authorities have also said that the suspects have been involved in money laundering using Bitcoin.

Europol noted that the hackers have typically favoured the LockerGoga ransomware.

The malware first appeared in January 2019 when it infected a French engineering company. LockerGoga locked up operations at Norwegian aluminium manufacturer Norsk Hydro back in 2019, halting production at several plants.

In addition, the individuals are believed to have used malware such as Trickbot or Cobalt Strike, and ransomware including MegaCortex and Dharma.

In total, the 12 individuals are believed to have hit over 1,800 victims across 71 countries.

Alongside Europol, police forces from the UK, Norway, France, the Netherlands, Ukraine: Prosecutor General’s Office, Germany, Switzerland, and the US were involved in the operation.

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Ransomware has emerged as one of the biggest cyberthreats facing businesses. Head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Lindy Cameron claimed that it posed the “most immediate danger” to UK businesses.

The threat posed by ransomware has been growing over the past two years. Research warned that ransomware attacks doubled in the first six months of this year, during which UK businesses were hit by 14.6 million attacks. The global total is estimated at around 121.4 million.

Additional research has added that two thirds of organisations have been hit by ransomware attacks.

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