A powerful group of hackers undermined.
The LockBit gang, behind numerous international cyberattacks, was targeted by a police operation coordinating the efforts of the United Kingdom and the United States and regaining control of their websites, reports Reuters this Monday evening .
A message posted on its main page states that the site "is now under the control of the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency, which works in close cooperation with the FBI and the International Enforcement Task Force laws,
Operation Cronos
”.
Several other sites in the group have been closed or display the same alert message, specifies the specialized site Cybernews.
Contacted by Reuters, a spokesperson for the National Crime Agency confirmed that the agency had dismantled the hacker group.
The operation is “under development”, adds the same source.
Numerous attacks in France
Since January 2020, LockBit and its affiliates – independent hackers who use its software and pay it a percentage of the ransoms obtained – have attacked organizations in financial services, food and agriculture, education, energy, government and emergency services, health, industry and transport.
Russian-speaking, the LockBit 3.0 hacker group was behind numerous crippling cyberattacks on French companies and structures.
In 2022, he targeted the Corbeil-Essonnes hospital, demanding a $1 million ransom in exchange for the destruction of data stolen from the establishment.
In 2023, the group claimed responsibility for cyberattacks against Thalès, Nuxe, and even “Voyagers du Monde”.
Each time, data belonging to the companies, or their customers, was stolen and threatened with being released if a ransom was not paid.
Consequence: seven national cybersecurity agencies, including the French Anssi, joined forces to counter the hackers.
In a joint memo, these agencies noted that LockBit ransomware was responsible for 16% to 27% of ransom demands depending on the country, according to the agencies' joint memo.
The United States has recorded 1,700 LockBit attacks since 2020 and $91 million in ransoms paid.
In France, LockBit was the source of 27% of ransom demands in 2022 and 2023 and Anssi handled 69 hacks attributed to the group.