An international group of law enforcement agencies have seized the dark web leak site of the notorious ransomware gang known as ALPHV, or BlackCat.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation seized this site as part of a coordinated law enforcement action taken against ALPHV Blackcat Ransomware,” a message on the gang’s dark web leak site now reads, seen by TechCrunch.
According to the splash, the takedown operation also involved law enforcement agencies from the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.
Spokespeople for the FBI and the U.K.’s National Crime Agency did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware gang has been one of the most active and destructive in recent years.
Microsoft says it has successfully dismantled the infrastructure of a cybercrime operation that sold access to fraudulent Outlook accounts to other hackers, including the notorious Scattered Spider gang.
The group, tracked by Microsoft as “Storm-1152”, is described as a major player in the cybercrime as a service (CaaS) ecosystem, whereby criminals provide hacking and cybercrime services to other individuals or groups.
Storm-1152 created for sale approximately 750 million fraudulent Microsoft accounts through its “hotmailbox.me” service to earn “millions of dollars in illicit revenue” and cause “millions of dollars in damage to Microsoft,” according to the company.
Microsoft said it had identified several ransomware and extortion groups utilizing Storm-1162’s services, including Octo Tempest, better known as Scattered Spider.
Storm-1152 operated as a typical internet going-concern, providing training for its tools and even offering full customer support.
