Police in Ukraine announced on Wednesday that a father-son duo linked to the cybercrime gang Lockbit has been arrested after an international law enforcement operation led by Britain’s National Crime Agency and the FBI earlier this week.
The duo, whose names were not revealed by police, are accused of carrying out ransomware attacks against “enterprises, state institutions and health care institutions in France,” according to a statement by the National Police of Ukraine.
The arrests were conducted following a number of searches in the city of Ternopil, Ukraine, and resulted in the seizure of mobile phones and computer equipment used for illegal activities.
Earlier in the week, the NCA, FBI, U.S. Department of Justice and Europol had disclosed that a joint operation named “Operation Cronos” had disrupted the core activities of Lockbit, a notorious cybercrime organization.
Two Russian nationals have been charged by the United States for deploying Lockbit’s ransomware tools against companies and groups globally, with two arrests made in Poland and Ukraine by local authorities.
As a result of the Ukrainian arrests, law enforcement were able to seize more than 200 cryptocurrency accounts and 34 servers used by the gang in various countries including the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States.
Before its seizure, Lockbit was able to extort multiple hacking victims through its website, which listed the names of breached companies and organizations alongside a countdown timer to release victims’ data unless a ransom was paid.
Operation Cronos saw police agencies, now in control of Lockbit’s website, using the platform to expose the inner workings of the group.
French police requested the Ukrainian investigations and arrests, as France had over 200 victims, including hospitals, town halls, and businesses, targeted by Lockbit. In January 2022, Lockbit claimed to have hacked France’s justice ministry.
In Poland, a 38-year-old man linked to the Lockbit gang was arrested in Warsaw, with the assistance of a French cyber police unit. The “Operation Cronos” taskforce was created under Europol following calls from French investigators.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv and James Pearson in London; Additonal reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta in Brussels; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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