Lockbit dismantling progresses

Police authorities from 12 countries have carried out another concerted action as part of “Operation Cronos.” Mission-critical servers for the Lockbit infrastructure were shut down and four suspects said to be connected to the cybercriminals were arrested, Europol said in a news release.

“LockBit power cut: Four new arrests and financial sanctions against affiliates,“ the European Union’s law enforcement agency said in a tweet on Tuesday.

Ransomware gangsters in the sights

As part of the current police action, the following actions were taken, Europol said:

• Lockbit’s nine infrastructure servers were shut down,

• the operator of a Bulletproof hosting service in Spain was arrested,

• a Lockbit developer was arrested at the instigation of France, and

• two alleged affiliates of the ransomware gang were arrested in the UK.

In addition, according to Europol, additional sanctions have been imposed by the US, Australia and the UK on a total of 24 Russian citizens – including an actor who is said to be close to both Lockbit and EvilCorp.