Europol: 7 arrested in Cybercrime-as-a-Service takedown


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:

  • Over 70pc of Irish businesses suffered cyber attack in the past 12 months – report

    October 17, 2023

    Over 70pc of Irish businesses have suffered a cyber attack over the past year, a new report from insurer Hiscox has revealed. Around 71pc of the 200 Irish businesses surveyed experienced a cyber attack in the past 12 months, up 22pc from the same period last year. Ireland also had the highest median average number ...

  • Equifax fined £11 million by financial watchdog over 2017 cyber attack

    October 13, 2023

    The UK’s financial watchdog has fined Equifax £11 million for its role in one of the largest cyber attacks, which affected more than 13 million British consumers in 2017. The credit rating giant failed to keep its customers safe during an “entirely preventable” cybersecurity breach, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said. Read more… Source: Yahoo Newss  

  • ToddyCat: Keep calm and check logs

    October 12, 2023

    ToddyCat is an advanced APT actor that Kaspersky researchers described in a previous publication last year. The group started its activities in December 2020 and has been responsible for multiple sets of attacks against high-profile entities in Europe and Asia. Kaspersky first publication was focused on their main tools, Ninja Trojan and Samurai Backdoor, and ...

  • Survey finds more than 50% of German companies victim of cyberattacks

    October 10, 2023

    A multi-country survey by the British insurer Hiscox shows that security authorities around the world are struggling in the fight against cybercrime. According to the Hiscox comparison with selected countries, German businesses are relatively frequent targets of hackers. The latest edition of the annual comparison of eight countries shows 53% of the companies surveyed reported cyberattacks. According ...

  • UK: ‘Cyber terrorist’ who hid data on James Bond-style cufflink refused parole

    October 7, 2023

    A “cyber terrorist” who was jailed after hiding his support for the so-called Islamic State on a James Bond-style cufflink has been refused parole. Samata Ullah, then 34, created a “one-stop shop” for terrorists from his bedroom in Cardiff, offering a range of guidance on how to stay one step ahead of police and security ...

  • Lyca Mobile blames cyberattack for network disruption

    October 4, 2023

    U.K.-based mobile virtual network provider giant Lyca Mobile has confirmed a cyberattack that caused service disruption for millions of its customers. Lyca Mobile claims to be the world’s largest international mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, which piggybacks off network operator EE’s infrastructure. Lyca confirmed in a statement this week that the security incident prevented customers ...