Europol coordinates global action against criminal abuse of Cobalt Strike


Law enforcement has teamed up with the private sector to fight against the abuse of a legitimate security tool by criminals who were using it to infiltrate victims’ IT systems.

Older, unlicensed versions of the Cobalt Strike red teaming tool were targeted during a week of action coordinated from Europol’s headquarters between 24 and 28 June. Throughout the week, law enforcement flagged known IP addresses associated with criminal activity, along with a range of domain names used by criminal groups, for online service providers to disable unlicensed versions of the tool.

Read more…
Source: Europol


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Decade Old DDoS-for-Hire Service Taken Down, Administrators Arrested

    June 19, 2023

    Polish authorities took down a DDoS-for-hire service that’s been around for a decade following an investigation with support of the FBI, Europol and law enforcement agencies from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. DDoS attacks are always a nuisance, but they can inflict serious damage to companies and organizations. The simple fact that a webpage or a ...

  • Swiss administration hit by cyber attack

    June 3, 2023

    Swiss authorities are investigating a cyber attack on the IT company Xplain, whose clients include many federal and cantonal government departments, including the army and customs. The online attack was revealed on Saturday by the newspaper Le Temps, which reported that “several cantonal police forces, the Swiss army and the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) have ...

  • IT security analyst admits hijacking cyber attack to pocket ransom payments

    May 24, 2023

    A former IT security analyst at Oxford Biomedica has admitted, five years after the fact, to turning to the dark side – by hijacking a cyber attack against his own company in an attempt to divert any ransom payments to himself. Ashley Liles, of Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty at Reading Crown Court to blackmail ...

  • UK’s GDPR replacement could wipe out oversight of live facial recognition

    May 19, 2023

    Biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner Professor Fraser Sampson has warned that independent oversight of facial recognition is at risk just as the policing minister plans to “embed” it into the force. He said this week that the widely slated use of facial recognition at the recent crowning of Charles III was “a glimpse into the future ...

  • Man jailed for running multimillion-pound criminal website iSpoof

    May 19, 2023

    The man responsible for running a multimillion-pound fraud website, used by scammers to trick people into handing over their bank details, has been jailed. Tejay Fletcher, 35, pleaded guilty to running iSpoof, a website that allowed criminals and fraudsters to appear as if they were calling from banks, tax offices and other official bodies in an ...

  • Balkans’ biggest drug lords arrested after investigation into encrypted phones

    May 12, 2023

    On 11 May, coordinated raids were carried out in Serbia and the Netherlands, targeting both the cartel’s leadership and distribution infrastructure. Seven other members of this criminal organisation were already arrested in Belgium in 2021. Two individuals were previously arrested for other offences in Serbia and Peru. Another suspect was arrested in the Netherlands on ...