THE HAGUE, February 11. /TASS/. The coordinated actions of law enforcement agencies from various countries have led to the detention of four Russians allegedly involved in the distribution of ransomware, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (or Europol) said.
According to the agency, all the detained were part of the 8Base group, which "deployed a variant of Phobos ransomware to extort high-value payments from victims across Europe and beyond." "At the same time, 27 servers linked to the criminal network were taken down," Europol said in a statement on its website. The agency did not specify in which countries the arrests took place.
According to the document, law enforcement officials previously detained a Phobos administrator in South Korea in 2024, as well as a key Phobos affiliate in Italy in 2023, who was involved in the development and distribution of the ransomware.
Law enforcement agencies from 14 countries were involved in the challenging international operation, which was supported by Europol and the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust). Europol contributed to the operation by "bringing together intelligence from these separate investigations, enabling authorities to take down key actors from both ransomware networks in a coordinated effort."
The Phobos ransomware gained popularity in late 2018. According to Europol, the program is designed for mass attacks on small and medium enterprises, which often lack protection against cyber threats.