US and EU authorities fight global cybercrime with hacking tools

US and EU authorities fight global cybercrime with hacking tools

US and European authorities announced a significant blow to a widespread hacking tool, known as Lumma. This tool was used by hundreds of hackers in harmful ransomware attacks, bank thefts and other digital crimes.

Seizur of hacker computer systems

The US Ministry of Justice announced that it has confiscated the computer systems that hackers used to use Lumma. Microsoft, on the other hand, has taken over 2,300 online domains that are connected with this criminal activity, or secured.

scope of the problem

This represents an enormous setback for a criminal hacker organization that has been out of hand overhand in the past two months. Microsoft found that around 394,000 computers worldwide were infected by Lumma with the Windows software. Cybercriminals used Lumma to attack airlines, universities, banks, hospitals and US state governments. The victims also include Fortune 500 companies. According to Brett Leatherman, the deputy director of cyber operations at the FBI, Hacker with Lumma suffered credit card losses of $ 36.5 million in 2023 alone.

challenges in combating

As with many efforts to combat cyber crime, there were setbacks when the topic of Russian sovereignty came into play. The main software developer from Lumma is based in Russia, So the analysts from Microsoft . There he offers various access levels to Lumma via Telegram and other Russian-language forums to prices between $ 250 and $ 1,000.

legal challenges

In the past ten years, US investigators have charged numerous Russian hackers for severe cyber attacks on American companies and government agencies, but only a few accused have stood before a US court. Russian diplomats have tried vigorously to keep Russian cybercriminals from US custody.

strategies to combat cybercrime

Leatherman did not want to comment on whether the FBI believes that the main developer of Lumma is in Russia or whether the US government has passed on such information to the Russian government. "Regardless of where these people are located, our sacrificial -centered approach focuses on addressing the underlying ecosystem because this gives relief to the victims," ​​said Leatherman.

collaboration against cybercrime

The large -scale action of law enforcement included the cooperation between Europol, several other American and European technology companies and a Japanese organization. This approach to combating cybercrime is based on the extensive range of software companies in the global economy and has become more important in recent years.

"This is part of a more comprehensive law enforcement examination against the group behind Lumma. We hope that this also undermines the trust within the ecosystem," said Leatherman during a press conference on Wednesday.