The international law enforcement effort focused heavily on African nations to combat the rapid growth of sophisticated cyberattacks targeting the energy and financial sectors. In Senegal, authorities successfully froze accounts to stop a 7.9 million dollar wire transfer intended for a petroleum company before the stolen funds could be withdrawn. Meanwhile, in Benin, the operation led to over one hundred arrests and the removal of thousands of social media accounts and domains used for various online scams.
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Ghanaian and Nigerian authorities collaborated to dismantle a cross-border fraud scheme that impersonated famous fast-food brands to steal 400,000 dollars from hundreds of victims. In a separate incident in Ghana, police responded to a massive ransomware attack on a financial institution by developing a custom tool to decrypt 30 terabytes of data. This specific action led to multiple arrests and the seizure of dozens of servers and hardware devices used by the criminals.
The success of the mission relied on a partnership between police agencies and private technology firms that provided the tools needed to trace digital footprints. These companies helped identify IP addresses used in extortion attacks and assisted in the complex process of freezing illicit proceeds stored in various financial systems. By combining technical data from the private sector with the jurisdictional reach of Interpol, the operation was able to take down 11,432 malicious infrastructures.
This recent wave of arrests follows a series of similar global crackdowns, including Operation Serengeti and Operation Red Card, which targeted thousands of additional suspects earlier in the year. Interpol officials emphasize that these recurring operations are necessary to keep pace with the increasing scale of cyber threats across the continent. By fostering international cooperation, law enforcement aims to protect critical infrastructure and recover the millions of dollars lost to digital fraud and extortion every year.
Source: Interpol Led Action Decrypts Six Ransomware Strains And Arrests Hundreds