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:
- NCA launches UK ad campaign to divert kids searching for cybercrime tools
May 29, 2020
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has launched a new advertising campaign designed to divert young people searching for cybercrime services to white hat alternatives. As spotted by cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs, using a UK IP address when searching Google for particular terms that can relate to cybercrime, such as Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS) for hire, booters, stressers, ...
- Europol, Capgemini team up in cybercrime prevention, awareness campaigns
May 26, 2020
Europol and Capgemini have agreed to pool their resources in new cybersecurity awareness campaigns and the expansion of existing collaboration on threat intelligence. On Tuesday, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with the consultancy giant that is expected to lead to new “joint exercises, capacity building, and prevention campaigns.” Europol and ...
- Mozilla, Twitter, Reddit join forces in effort to block browsing data from warrantless access
May 25, 2020
A group of seven internet companies are vowing to stand up for the privacy of its users this week when the United States House of Representatives considers the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020. Mozilla, Engine, Reddit, Reform Government Surveillance, Twitter, i2Coalition, and Patreon have asked four US legislators to explicitly prohibit the warrantless collection of internet ...
- Hacker arrested in Ukraine for selling billions of stolen credentials
May 19, 2020
The Ukrainian Secret Service (SSU) announced today the arrest of a hacker known as Sanix, responsible for selling billions of hacked credentials on hacking forums and Telegram channels. The SSU says it arrested Sanix in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in western Ukraine. Authorities did not release the hacker’s name. Sanix has a long history on underground hacking forums, ...
- Europol: Hacker Group Selling Databases With Millions Of User Credentials Busted In Poland And Switzerland
May 5, 2020
Polish and Swiss law enforcement authorities, supported by Europol and Eurojust, dismantled InfinityBlack, a hacking group involved in distributing stolen user credentials, creating and distributing malware and hacking tools, and fraud. On 29 April 2020, the Polish National Police (Policja) searched six locations in five Polish regions and arrested five individuals believed to be members of ...
- Dutch police take down 15 DDoS services in a week
April 10, 2020
In a press release published today, Dutch police said they have successfully taken down 15 DDoS-for-hire services in the span of a week, as part of one of their most successful crackdowns against online DDoS service providers. The DDoS-for-hire websites, also known as DDoS booters or DDoS stressors, allowed users to sign up and launch DDoS ...