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:
- Russian diplomat accuses West of patronizing Ukrainian IT army that commits cybercrime
December 12, 2023
The US-led West supervises Ukraine’s so-called IT army that may be responsible for cybercrime, Russia’s representative Irina Tyazhlova said on Monday. Addressing a meeting of the UN Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on security of and in the use of information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs), she said: “Other numerous malicious activities with the use of ICTs were ...
- PSNI data breach ‘wake-up call’ for UK forces, review says
December 11, 2023
A major data breach within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has been described as “a wake-up call” for forces across the UK. A report into the data leak has made 37 recommendations for improving information security within the PSNI. In August, the surnames and initials of all the PSNI’s 9,500 staff were released by ...
- The Names of Thousands of Neo-Nazi Music Fans Just Got Leaked
December 11, 2023
For years if a white supremacist wanted to get their hands on select neo-Nazi music one of their likely stops would be Midgård, a Scandinavian online shop specializing in racist tunes. While the site offered a wide range of neo-Nazi music, clothing, and paraphernalia, its customers learned last week one thing they didn’t offer was infosec. ...
- Europol warning on the criminal use of Bluetooth trackers for geolocalisation
December 11, 2023
For the past several years, Europol has been observing a growing crime phenomenon: the use of Bluetooth trackers in organised crime. Bluetooth trackers are small devices designed to help people find personal objects, such as keys and bags, as well as vehicles at risk of theft. They can be attached to an item one does not ...
- EU agrees ‘historic’ deal with world’s first laws to regulate AI
December 7, 2023
The world’s first comprehensive laws to regulate artificial intelligence have been agreed in a landmark deal after a marathon 37-hour negotiation between the European Parliament and EU member states. The agreement was described as “historic” by Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner responsible for a suite of laws in Europe that will also govern social media and ...
- UK: Sellafield nuclear site hacked by groups linked to Russia and China
December 4, 2023
The UK’s most hazardous nuclear site, Sellafield, has been hacked into by cyber groups closely linked to Russia and China, the Guardian can reveal. The astonishing disclosure and its potential effects have been consistently covered up by senior staff at the vast nuclear waste and decommissioning site, the investigation has found. The Guardian has discovered that ...