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:
- Motorists data stolen as RingGo parking app-owner hit by cyber attack
December 26, 2023
Hackers have stolen data including partial credit card numbers from parking apps used by millions of motorists. EasyPark, which owns RingGo and ParkMobile, said the details of at least 950 customers in the UK had been stolen by hackers, including names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses and parts of credit card numbers. Read more… Source: MSN News
- Estonia: At least one case of extortion reported following Asper Biogene data leak
December 25, 2023
Investigations into the Asper Biogene data leak that came to light last week are ongoing, and there is already at least one known case of an attempt to extort money from an individual in connection with the data leak. When the data theft case came to light, police warned that the situation could be exploited by ...
- Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order
December 22, 2023
An 18-year-old hacker who leaked clips of a forthcoming Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order. Arion Kurtaj from Oxford, who is autistic, was a key member of international gang Lapsus$. The gang’s attacks on tech giants including Uber, Nvidia and Rockstar Games cost the firms nearly $10m. The judge ...
- Former Chelsea player Rati Aleksidze arrested in Germany for ‘gang-related investment fraud’
December 20, 2023
A former Chelsea striker played a possible minor role in a global investment crime gang, according to prosecutors investigating a cyber scam worth “billions”. Rati Aleksidze was temporarily held under a European arrest warrant in March. German prosecutors told Telegraph Sport he is suspected of playing “at most” a minor role in the Tbilisi-based conspiracy accused of ...
- UK: Police to be able to run face recognition searches on 50m driving licence holders
December 20, 2023
The police will be able to run facial recognition searches on a database containing images of Britain’s 50 million driving licence holders under a law change being quietly introduced by the government. Should the police wish to put a name to an image collected on CCTV, or shared on social media, the legislation would provide them ...
- UK: IT failures causing patient deaths, says NHS safety body
December 19, 2023
Urgent action is needed to address NHS computer failings which are causing harm to patients, the patient safety watchdog has told BBC News. The watchdog has evidence of patient deaths due to IT system errors. The government called the reports “concerning” and said it would work with NHS England to take necessary action to protect patients. ...

