The IT Nerd

Clearly the LockBit ransomware gang is on the radar screens of many. And they should be as they’ve proven to be one of the more dangerous ransomware gangs out there. But that notoriety may be having a negative effect on LockBit as 11 countries have teamed up to take a shot at them:

Reuters has more details:

Lockbit, a notorious cybercrime gang that holds its victims’ data to ransom, has been disrupted in a rare international law enforcement operation by Britain’s National Crime Agency, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Europol, according to a post on the gang’s extortion website on Monday.

“This site is now under the control of the National Crime Agency of the UK, working in close cooperation with the FBI and the international law enforcement task force, ‘Operation Cronos’,” the post said.

An NCA spokesperson confirmed that the agency had disrupted the gang and said the operation was “ongoing and developing”.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The post named other international police organizations from France, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Germany.

Since LockBit is basically “ransomware as a service” where affiliate actors can use LockBit’s services to go after companies as long as LockBit gets a cut, this takedown is hugely disruptive. Sure these affiliates will go elsewhere eventually, but for the time being you may see a decrease in ransomware activity. It will be interesting to get more details of this takedown, and if any more are planned.

This entry was posted on February 19, 2024 at 6:29 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.