Ukraine and Germany expose hackers who have been stealing money online since 2010

Ukrainian and German law enforcement officers have exposed a hacker network that has been committing cybercrime since 2010. This was reported by Deutsche Welle. In total, more than 600 organizations and individuals were affected. Among them are the National Health Service of Great Britain and the University Hospital of Dusseldorf. The damage was worth millions of euros.

The hacker group is known as Double-Spider. However, the cybercriminals changed the name of their organization every time they tried to disappear from the sight of law enforcement.

The police have only now released information about the special operation — it took place on February 28 in Germany and Ukraine with the support of the FBI, Europol and the Dutch police. Law enforcement officers conducted large-scale searches and seized evidence of criminal activity.

? Germany & Ukraine hit two high-value #ransomware targets.

The targets are suspected core members of the criminal group responsible for carrying out large-scale cyberattacks with the #DoppelPaymer ransomware.

Press release⤵️ t.co/GH0tSb6TFX #EMPACT pic.twitter.com/0xWzbdpt5s

— Europol (@Europol) March 6, 2023

German prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for three hackers. Investigative actions are ongoing against the other eight members of the group. Their whereabouts are currently unknown.

One of the suspects, a 41-year-old Russian, is also wanted by the FBI. Law enforcement officials promise a $ 5 million reward for information about the criminal. The German police note that the group has ties to a terrorist state.

In turn, at Germany’s request, Europol added citizens of the occupying country, 31-year-old Igor Garshin and 41-year-old Igor Turashev, to the list of most wanted criminals. According to Garshin’s profile on Europol’s website, the Russian took an active part in cyberattacks on German companies, was engaged in surveillance, system penetration, and encryption of the data of the affected companies. For his part, Turashev was the administrator of the network that carried out the attacks and is a key suspect in the hacking of German companies.

As a reminder, yesterday it became known about the Ukrainians who face 12 years in prison for crypto fraud. The fraudsters concealed more than UAH 71 million that were supposed to be paid to the state treasury as taxes.