Dutch Police Arrest 3 Hackers Involved in Massive Data Theft and Extortion Scheme

The Dutch police announced the arrest of three folks in link with a “huge-scale” felony procedure involving knowledge theft, extortion, and funds laundering.

The suspects involve two 21-12 months-old men from Zandvoort and Rotterdam and an 18-calendar year-aged guy with out a long-lasting home. The arrests ended up manufactured on January 23, 2023.

It really is estimated that the hackers stole particular knowledge belonging to tens of millions of people today. This comprised names, addresses, phone figures, dates of birth, bank account figures, credit rating playing cards, passwords, license plates, social security figures, and passport information.

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The Politie claimed its cybercrime group started off the investigation approximately two yrs in the past, in March 2021, just after a large Dutch business experienced a security breach.

The name of the organization was not disclosed but some of the corporations that have been strike by a cyber attack all-around that time included RDC, Shell, and Ticketcounter, the very last of which was also a victim of an extortion attempt.

“Through the training course of the investigation, it has come to be very clear that thousands of tiny and significant organizations and institutions, both equally nationwide and worldwide, have fallen victim to laptop or computer intrusion (hacking) in latest a long time, followed by theft and dealing with of knowledge,” the agency explained.

The attack spree targeted a wide vary of industry verticals spanning catering, teaching institutes, e-commerce, software program, social media, and critical infrastructure.

Describing it as a “sophisticated” operation, the Politie claimed the danger actors demanded a Bitcoin payment from the influenced corporations and threatened to publish the stolen information and facts online or ruin the electronic infrastructure, racking up hundreds of thousands in damages.

The ransom demanded per corporation is explained to have ranged anywhere in between €100,000 and €700,000. To make issues worse, the suspects ended up advertising the details irrespective of the providers having to pay up.

The sensitive character of the plundered information suggests that it could be applied to have out social engineering attacks and a variety of kinds of fraudulent pursuits.

“Details theft and details buying and selling is a large income model for criminals,” the Politie warned. “Not just by extorting organizations. The captured data is processed to be traded to other criminals.”

It further mentioned how these types of stolen datasets are becoming refined and filtered in a way that tends to make them simply searchable in buy to uncover attractive targets and mount convincing attacks.

“Seeking and observing on the street is no for a longer time required,” the regulation enforcement device reported. “A force of a button in entrance of the laptop is enough.”

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