The Ragnar Locker group has been introduced down in a global operation and its suspected chief arrested
Europol has introduced the dismantling of Ragnar Locker, a multinational crime group described as “some of the harmful ransomware operations” of latest years.
In a press release made on Friday, Europol mentioned the group was taken down throughout a serious operation by police and judicial authorities from eleven international locations.
“This worldwide sweep follows a posh investigation led by the French Nationwide Gendarmerie, along with regulation enforcement authorities from the Czechia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and america of America,” Europol mentioned in a press release, including that the primary spherical of arrests underneath the case had been made in Ukraine in late 2021.
The ultimate stage of the months-long operation was carried out over October 16-20 with a number of searches carried out in Latvia, Spain, and the Czech Republic. The suspected chief of the group was arrested in France on October 16 and his house within the Czech Republic searched on the similar time. 5 different suspects had been introduced in for questioning in Spain and Latvia shortly thereafter, Europol revealed.
Regulation enforcement seized servers and different infrastructure utilized by the group within the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden, taking offline Ragnar Locker’s leak website, which is positioned on the darkish internet.
The group had been energetic since December 2019, preying on distant entry and administration software program to assault varied corporations and establishments and holding them ransom. The group explicitly warned its victims to not contact any authorities, leaking stolen knowledge on the darkish internet ought to they method regulation enforcement as a substitute of paying the ransom. Different a part of the extortion tactic by the group concerned demanding cash from its victims for decrypting instruments.
Probably the most notable assaults carried out by the group concerned hitting TAP Air Portugal, the nation’s flagship service in late 2022, in addition to a serious Israeli clinic, the Mayanei Hayeshua hospital, in September of this yr.
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