Reuters :
Four people have been arrested in Ukraine and Armenia and more than 100 internet servers taken down or disrupted in a major sting operation targeting international cybercrime that has impacted thousands of people, Europol said on Thursday.
Carried out between May 27 and 29, the European Union’s law enforcement agency called it “the largest ever operation against botnets, which play a major role in the deployment of ransomware”.
Dismantled botnets included IcedID, Smokeloader, SystemBC, Pikabot and Bumblebee, it added. The sting, dubbed Operation Endgame, was initiated and led by France, Germany and the Netherlands. It involved several other countries, including Britain, the United States and Ukraine, Europol said in a statement. “With the international Operation Endgame, our investigative authorities have succeeded in dealing the biggest and most significant blow against cybercrime to date,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.