Europol-led operation takes down pro-Russian cybercrime network
Codenamed Eastwood, the operation targeted the so-called NoName057(16) group, which was identified last month by Dutch authorities as being behind a series of denial-of-service attacks on several municipalities and organisations linked to a NATO summit in the Netherlands.
Europol said that the cybercrime network also was involved in attacks in Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland.
The police agency said the international operation 'led to the disruption of an attack-infrastructure consisting of over one hundred computer systems worldwide, while a major part of the group's central server infrastructure was taken offline'.
Judicial authorities in Germany issued six arrest warrants for suspects in Russia, two of them accused of being the main leaders of the group, Europol said. Five of them were identified on Europol's Europe's Most Wanted website.
One suspect was placed under preliminary arrest in France and another detained in Spain, Europol said. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was involved in the operation.
Europol said members of the cybercrime group initially targeted Ukrainian institutions, 'but have shifted their focus to attacking countries that support Ukraine in the ongoing defence against the Russian war of aggression, many of which are members of NATO'.
Law enforcement authorities in countries involved in the operation contacted hundreds of people believed to support the group to inform them of the crackdown and their alleged liability for its actions.
'Individuals acting for NoName057(16) are mainly Russian-speaking sympathisers who use automated tools to carry out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks,' Europol said.
'Operating without formal leadership or sophisticated technical skills, they are motivated by ideology and rewards'.
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