Europol uncovers malware plot that made $75M in crypto

Europol has announced that it has uncovered a €69 million ($75 million) ‘malware dropping’ plot as part of a worldwide criminal crackdown dubbed ‘Operation Endgame.’

Carried out between May 27 and 29, Endgame, which was led by France, Germany and the Netherlands, targeted droppers such as IcedID, SystemBC, Pikabot, Smokeloader, Bumblebee and Trickbot. It eventually saw four individuals arrested, took down over 100 servers across the globe, and seized over 2,000 domains.

The unnamed individual alleged to have been behind the scheme that raked in $75 million in cryptocurrency, reportedly made their fortune renting out criminal infrastructure and deploying malicious software.

As outlined by Europol, “Malware droppers are a type of malicious software designed to install other malware onto a target system. They are used during the first stage of a malware attack, during which they allow criminals to bypass security measures and deploy additional harmful programs, such as viruses, ransomware, or spyware. Droppers themselves do not usually cause direct damage but are crucial for accessing and implementing harmful softwares on the affected systems.”

According to Europol, “The suspect’s transactions are constantly being monitored and legal permission to seize these assets upon future actions has already been obtained.”