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:
- Dutch authorities claim Russia-backed group hacked into networks of police and NATO
May 27, 2025
A previously unknown Russian hacking group was behind attacks last year on the networks of the Dutch police, NATO and several European countries, Dutch intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The group, nicknamed Laundry Bear by the security agencies, was most likely supported by the Russian state, the Dutch General Intelligence Agency and Military Agency said in ...
- Europol and Microsoft disrupt world’s largest infostealer Lumma
May 21, 2025
Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre has worked with Microsoft to disrupt Lumma Stealer (“Lumma”), the world’s most significant infostealer threat. This joint operation targeted the sophisticated ecosystem that allowed criminals to exploit stolen information on a massive scale. Europol coordinated with law enforcement in Europe to ensure action was taken, leveraging intelligence provided by Microsoft. Between 16 ...
- Major supermarket distributor to Tesco and Sainsbury’s ‘held to ransom’
May 20, 2025
A major distributor to Britain’s biggest supermarkets, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi, is being held to ransom by cyber hackers following a string of assaults on UK retail in the last month. Peter Green Chilled said clients were “receiving regular updates” including “workarounds” on how to continue deliveries. No orders would be processed on Thursday, although any ...
- UK: Legal Aid database hacked, ‘significant amount’ of data and criminal records stolen
May 19, 2025
The UK’s Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has revealed that a cyberattack on the Legal Aid system has led to the theft of a “significant amount” of data, including criminal records. The MoJ was alerted to the attack on April 23 when data dating back as far as 2010 was accessed by the attackers. Earlier this month, ...
- Trump’s sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal’s work
May 15, 2025
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen. The Hague-based court’s American staffers have been told that if they travel to the U.S. they risk arrest. Some non-governmental organizations have stopped working with the ICC and the leaders of one won’t even reply to emails ...
- France: Daughter of crypto boss escapes Paris kidnap attempt in latest in series of attacks
May 14, 2025
Passers-by helped to foil the attempted kidnapping by armed assailants of the daughter and grandson of a French cryptocurrency boss in Paris, in a brazen daytime attack that was caught on camera. The incident prompted Paymium, the Crypto firm owned by the father of the woman targeted, to demand “protections” for companies in France’s cryptocurrency sphere. ...