European law enforcement agencies yesterday seized computer servers used by cybercriminals to infect hundreds of thousands of computers around the world with malware designed to steal personal and financial information, as well as money, from unsuspecting consumers.
The multinational effort, which was led by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), included the participation of agencies from the UK, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as technical assistance from Microsoft, Symantec and Anubis Networks.
The simultaneous seizure of servers in four countries followed a US lawsuit filed last week under seal in federal court by Microsoft and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Centre.
The operation comes on the heels of a recent report by Kaspersky Labs about a separate attack on financial institutions by cybercriminals, which resulted in the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars. In both situations, law enforcement and the private sector worked together to protect people online.
