Following the massive botnet takedown codenamed Operation Endgame in May 2024, which shut down the biggest malware droppers, including IcedID, SystemBC, Pikabot, Smokeloader and Bumblebee, law enforcement agencies across North America and Europe dealt another blow to the malware ecosystem in early 2025.
In a coordinated series of actions, customers of the Smokeloader pay-per-install botnet, operated by the actor known as ‘Superstar’, faced consequences such as arrests, house searches, arrest warrants or ‘knock and talks’. Superstar used his botnet to run a pay-per-install service, enabling customers to gain access to victims’ machines. Customers used the service to deploy malware for their own criminal activities. Investigations revealed that botnet access was purchased for a range of purposes, including keylogging, webcam access, ransomware deployment, cryptomining and more.
Read more…
Source: Europol
Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.
Related:
- Australia mandates age verification on major platforms, threatens $50M fines
July 20, 2025
Australia is implementing comprehensive internet age verification and ID check requirements as part of a major overhaul of online safety regulation. By December 27, 2025, major platforms including Google and Microsoft must implement age verification checks on their search engines for all logged-in Australian users, facing potential fines of up to AU $50 million per breach ...
- Global operation targets NoName057(16) pro-Russian cybercrime network
July 16, 2025
Between 14 and 17 July, a joint international operation, known as Eastwood and coordinated by Europol and Eurojust, targeted the cybercrime network NoName057(16). Law enforcement and judicial authorities from Czechia, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United States took simultaneous actions against offenders and infrastructure belonging to the pro-Russian ...
- ‘Pig butchering’ scams have stolen billions from people around the world.
July 14, 2025
At the beginning of 2025, panic about fraud and human trafficking erupted on Chinese social media. It started when a Chinese actor called Wang Xing was tricked into travelling to Thailand for an audition, where he was abducted by criminals and taken to a scam centre in Myanmar. Wang was reported missing and, within three days, ...
- Pro basketball player and 4 youths arrested in connection to ransomware crimes
July 10, 2025
Authorities in Europe have detained five people, including a former Russian professional basketball player, in connection with crime syndicates responsible for ransomware attacks. Until recently, one of the suspects, Daniil Kasatkin, played for MBA Moscow, a basketball team that’s part of the VTB United League, which includes teams from Russia and other Eastern European countries. Kasatkin ...
- UK: Arrests made after M&S, Co-op and Harrods cyber attacks
July 10, 2025
Four people, including three teenagers and a 20-year-old woman, have been arrested in connection with a wave of cyber attacks that crippled M&S, the Co-op and Harrods. The group allegedly unleashed ransomware that stole millions of customer records, shut down online orders and left supermarket shelves bare. The arrests included a 17-year-old British man from the ...
- U.S. Justice Department Announces Arrest of Prolific Chinese State-Sponsored Contract Hacker
July 8, 2025
China’s Ministry of State Security Directed the Theft of COVID-19 Research and the Exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerabilities, Known Publicly as the Indiscriminate ‘HAFNIUM’ Intrusion Campaign The Justice Department announced today that Xu Zewei (徐泽伟), 33, of the People’s Republic of China was arrested on July 3 in Italy at the request of the ...