Malware network that infected more than 700.000 victims and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage worldwide dismantled in multinational law enforcement operation | Eurojust | European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation

Malware network that infected more than 700.000 victims and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage worldwide dismantled in multinational law enforcement operation | Eurojust | European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation

 

The infrastructure of the malware and botnet known as ’Qakbot’ has been taken down in an international operation led by the United States involving actions in the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Romania and Latvia. The Qakbot malware infected more than 700.000 victim computers, facilitated the delivery of ransomware and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage worldwide. This is one of the largest financial and technical disruptions of a botnet infrastructure leveraged by cybercriminals to commit ransomware, financial fraud and other cyber-enabled criminal activity.

The US authorities seized approximately USD 8.6 million (nearly EUR 8 million) in cryptocurrency during the operation. Eurojust and Europol supported the investigation and played a key role in facilitating cross-border cooperation during the action day. (...)