Operation across Africa identifies cyber-criminals and at-risk online infrastructure
Coordinated from an INTERPOL Command Centre in Kigali, Rwanda, the operation focused on removing the enablers of cybercrime. Among the operational highlights: 11 individuals were arrested, with one suspect linked to the abuse of children, and 10 others linked to scam and fraud activities worth USD 800,000 which had an impact on victims globally. Authorities in Eritrea took down a Darknet Market that was selling hacking tools and cybercrime-as-a-service components. Multiple cryptocurrency scam cases were resolved in Cameroon, including one with an estimated financial impact upon the victim of more than CFA 8 million. Tanzania recovered more than USD 150,000 of victims’ money from data infringement and copyright cases. Action was taken against more than 200,000 pieces of malicious cyber infrastructure which facilitate cybercrime across the African Region. This included the takedown and clean-up of malicious infrastructure linked to botnet activity, and the dissemination of mass phishing, spam and online extortion activities (e.g. romance scams, banking scams and theft of data) to potential victims. Participating countries were able to improve their own national cyber security by patching network vulnerabilities and cleaning-up defaced government websites and securing vulnerable critical infrastructure, thereby reducing the risk of potentially catastrophic attacks. Investigations were shaped by intelligence provided by INTERPOL’s private sector partners including British Telecom, Cyber Defense Institute, Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs, Group-IB, Kaspersky, Unit 42-Palo Alto Networks, Shadowserver and Trend Micro.