A father-son team from the cybercrime gang Lockbit was taken into custody by Ukrainian police on Wednesday. The gang was targeted earlier this week by an international law enforcement operation headed by the FBI and Britain’s National Crime Agency.
The father and son, who were not identified by the police, were wanted for using ransomware, which is malicious software used to extort victims digitally, against “enterprises, state institutions and health care institutions in France,” according to a statement from the National Police of Ukraine.
“Investigators conducted a number of searches at the residences of hackers in Ternopil, during which mobile phones and computer equipment used in illegal activities were seized,” the statement said, referring to a city in western Ukraine.
A joint law enforcement operation known as “Operation Cronos” has reportedly disrupted the core operations of Lockbit, one of the most destructive cybercrime organisations in the world, according to a statement released on Tuesday by the NCA, FBI, US Department of Justice, and Europol.
Two Russian nationals have been charged by the US with using Lockbit’s ransomware tools against organisations and businesses worldwide. Two people were arrested, according to police agencies in Poland and Ukraine. According to a statement released by Ukrainian police on Wednesday, the gang’s 34 servers and more than 200 cryptocurrency accounts in the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, France, Switzerland, Australia, the United States, and Britain were seized by law enforcement as a result of the arrests made in Ukraine.
Through its website, which displayed the names of compromised businesses and organisations next to a countdown timer that, upon reaching zero, would release a victim’s data unless they paid a ransom, Lockbit was able to extort multiple hacking victims at once before it was seized by police.
