LYON, France – In a sweeping INTERPOL-coordinated operation, authorities across Africa have arrested 1,209 cybercriminals targeting nearly 88,000 victims. The crackdown recovered USD 97.4 million and dismantled 11,432 malicious infrastructures, underscoring the global reach of cybercrime and the urgent need for cross-border cooperation.
Operation Serengeti 2.0 (June to August 2025) brought together investigators from 18 African countries and the United Kingdom to tackle high-harm and high-impact cybercrimes including ransomware, online scams and business email compromise (BEC). These were all identified as prominent threats in the recent INTERPOL Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report.
Read more…
Source: Interpol
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Ransomware hits city of Antwerp
December 6, 2022
Cybercriminals infected the city’s IT systems with ransomware. Residents are unable to make appointments for public affairs. Antwerp’s police and museums are partially offline. The attack took place on the night of December 5-6. A city spokesperson told De Standaard that ransomware was found on several systems. The identity of the attacker(s) is unknown at the ...
- Ransomware gang targets Belgian municipality, hits police instead
November 26, 2022
The Ragnar Locker ransomware gang has published stolen data from what they thought was the municipality of Zwijndrecht, but turned out to be stolen from Zwijndrecht police, a local police unit in Antwerp, Belgium. The leaked data reportedly exposed thousands of car number plates, fines, crime report files, personnel details, investigation reports, and more. This type of ...
- Australian Cyber Task Force Looks to “Hack the Hackers” After Data Breach Crime Wave
November 24, 2022
A recent string of data breaches has prompted rapid changes to Australia’s cybersecurity and data protection policies, and the latest development appears to be a cyber task force set to “hack back” and actively pursue what Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil described as “scumbags.” Home Affairs is promising a new “tough on crime” policy toward ...
- Cyber-enabled financial crime: USD 130 million intercepted in global INTERPOL police operation
November 24, 2022
LYON, France – An INTERPOL police operation to tackle online fraud has seen almost 1000 suspects arrested and the seizure of USD 129,975,440 worth of virtual assets. Fraud investigators around the world worked together over five months (28 June – 23 November) to intercept money and virtual assets linked to a wide range of cyber-enabled financial ...
- RCMP use of spyware warrants update to Canada’s privacy laws, MPs say
November 24, 2022
Canada should update its privacy laws in the wake of revelations that the country’s national police force uses spyware to hack mobile devices, a parliamentary committee says. The House of Commons ethics committee is recommending the federal government require privacy assessments for the use of “high-risk technological tools” that collect personal data, according to a report ...
- Estonian duo accused of $575m cryptocurrency scam
November 22, 2022
Police in Estonia have arrested two men suspected of running a $575m (£485m) cryptocurrency scam involving hundreds of thousands of victims. Estonian police investigated the case with the FBI, and US authorities want to extradite the pair – Estonians Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin. The two 37-year-olds allegedly got people to invest in a cryptocurrency mining service ...