An action day performed in Latvia on 10 October 2025 led to the arrest of five cybercriminals of Latvian nationality and the seizure of infrastructure used to enable crimes against thousands of victims across Europe.
During the operation codenamed ‘SIMCARTEL’, law enforcement arrested two further suspects, took down five servers and seized 1 200 SIM box devices alongside 40 000 active SIM cards. Investigators from Austria, Estonia and Latvia, together with their colleagues at Europol und Eurojust, were able to attribute to the criminal network more than 1 700 individual cyber fraud cases in Austria and 1 500 in Latvia, with a total loss of several million euros. The financial loss in Austria alone amounts to around EUR 4.5 million, as well as EUR 420 000 in Latvia.
Read more…
Source: Europol
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- The EU prepares ground for wider data retention – and VPN providers are among the targets
December 18, 2025
EU governments are pushing to widen data retention obligations for apps that citizens use every day – and the best VPN apps are among those targeted. A new internal document dated November 27 (first published by Netzpolitik) provides important insights into the current thinking of the Danish Presidency of the EU Council. It shows that member ...
- The AI Chip Arms Race: How China Built Its Own “Manhattan Project”
December 17, 2025
In a high-security laboratory in Shenzhen, China, scientists have developed a prototype machine capable of producing advanced semiconductor chips crucial for technologies such as artificial intelligence and military applications, a goal that the U.S. has long sought to prevent. This prototype, completed in early 2025 and currently in the testing phase, occupies almost an entire factory ...
- French government hit by cyberattack
December 15, 2025
The French Interior Ministry has confirmed recently suffering a cyberattack, but the consequences are still being determined. The French Minister of Interior said the attack took place at night, between December 11 and December 12. Email servers were compromised, allowing threat actors to access some document files. However, it is currently unclear if they managed to ...
- German Government Summons Russian Ambassador Over Major Cyberattack
December 12, 2025
The German government has formally summoned the Russian ambassador following the attribution of a significant cyberattack and coordinated disinformation campaign to Russian actors. This development comes amid heightened concerns regarding interference in Germany’s political processes and critical infrastructure. According to official statements, the cyberattack in question targeted the German Air Traffic Control (Deutsche Flugsicherung, DFS) in ...
- Poland detains three Ukrainians over possession of hacking equipment
December 8, 2025
A Polish court has ordered three Ukrainian nationals held on charges of computer fraud and possessing hardware and software designed to commit crimes, including a suspected attempt to damage IT data deemed crucial to national defence. The three men, aged 43, 42 and 39, were detained after a roadside check in Warsaw, Polish state news agency ...
- X gets $140 million EU fine for breaching content rules but TikTok settles
December 5, 2025
Elon Musk’s social media company X was fined 120 million euros ($140 million) by EU tech regulators on Friday for breaching online content rules, the first sanction under landmark legislation that once again drew criticism from the U.S. government. While X did not respond to an emailed request for comment, Musk replied “Bullshit” under a European ...