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:
- European diplomats targeted by SPIKEDWINE with WINELOADER
February 27, 2024
Zscaler’s ThreatLabz discovered a suspicious PDF file uploaded to VirusTotal from Latvia on January 30th, 2024. This PDF file is masqueraded as an invitation letter from the Ambassador of India, inviting diplomats to a wine-tasting event in February 2024. The PDF also included a link to a fake questionnaire that redirects users to a malicious ZIP ...
- Lockbit cybercrime gang says it is back online following global police bust
February 26, 2024
Lockbit, the cybercrime gang that was knocked offline by a comprehensive international police operation earlier this month, says it has restored its servers and is back in business. The group, notorious on the internet’s criminal underground for using malicious software called ransomware to digitally extort its victims, was the target of an unprecedented international law enforcement ...
- Europol: Tips & advice to prevent ransomware from infecting your electronic devices
February 21, 2024
Ransomware is a type of malware that locks your computer and mobile devices or encrypts your electronic files, demanding a ransom payment through certain online payment methods (and by an established deadline) in order to regain control of your data. It can be downloaded through fake application updates or by visiting compromised websites. It can also ...
- Sharp rise in cyber attacks at UK law firms as hackers eye sensitive data
February 21, 2024
The number of reported cyber attacks on UK law firms has increased 36 per cent over the past year. According to data by speciality reinsurance group Chaucer, there were 166 reported cyber breaches in 2021/22, this number jumped to 226 for 2022/23 (as of 30 September). Chaucer says that the large number of attacks against law ...
- Law enforcement disrupt world’s biggest ransomware operation
February 20, 2024
In a significant breakthrough in the fight against cybercrime, law enforcement from 10 countries have disrupted the criminal operation of the LockBit ransomware group at every level, severely damaging their capability and credibility. LockBit is widely recognised as the world’s most prolific and harmful ransomware, causing billions of euros worth of damage. This international sweep follows ...
- Cambridge faces cyber attack
February 19, 2024
The University faced a cyberattack yesterday (20/02), which is affected internet and services across multiple UK higher education institutions. Students at various colleges were notified of the attack, which affected access to IT services such as CamSIS and Moodle. An internal email revealed that the incident was a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, described as ...