LockBit has been involved in many high-profile hacking campaigns.
Law enforcement agencies in the UK, US and several other countries have dealt a major blow to cybercrime by seizing the online sites of notorious ransomware gang LockBit. LockBit is known for providing criminals with tools and services that enable them to launch ransomware attacks and extort money from victims by encrypting their data.
A message appeared on the LockBit website Monday night saying it was “now under the control of law enforcement.” The news further confirms the collaboration between the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and international law enforcement task force Operation Cronos.
“This is an ongoing and evolving operation,” the message declared, inviting further updates.
The seizure of the LockBit website represents a significant advance in the fight against ransomware, as it disrupts the gang’s ability to communicate with its members and recruit new attackers. While the full scope of the operation is unclear, it demonstrates a coordinated international effort to dismantle ransomware infrastructure and bring perpetrators to justice.
Spokespeople for the NCA and the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed the agencies had dismantled the gang and said the operation was “ongoing and evolving.”
U.S. officials have called the group the world’s largest ransomware threat. Lockbit has attacked more than 1,700 organizations in nearly every industry, from financial services and food to schools, transportation and government.
Representatives for Lockbit did not respond to a message from Reuters seeking comment, but posted on the encrypted messaging app that its backup servers had not been affected by the law enforcement action. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The post also mentioned other international police organizations from France, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Germany.
In recent months, Lockbit and its affiliates have hacked some of the world’s largest organizations. The gang makes money by stealing sensitive data and threatening to leak it if victims don’t pay the ransom. Lockbit recruits its affiliates as like-minded criminal gangs to launch attacks using its digital ransomware tools.
Ransomware is malware that encrypts data. Lockbit makes money by forcing targets to pay a ransom to decrypt or unlock that data using a digital key.
Lockbit was discovered in 2020 when its namesake malware was discovered on a Russian-language cybercrime forum, leading some security analysts to believe the gang was based in Russia, Reuters reported.
However, the group has not publicly expressed support for any government, and no government has officially affiliated it with a nation-state. The group said on its now-defunct dark website that it was “based in the Netherlands, completely apolitical and only interested in money.”
(With information from Reuters)
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