INTERPOL on Wednesday introduced the dismantling of greater than 20,000 malicious IP addresses or domains which have been linked to 69 information-stealing malware variants.
The joint motion, codenamed Operation Safe, occurred between January and April 2025, and concerned regulation enforcement businesses from 26 nations to establish servers, map bodily networks, and execute focused takedowns.
“These coordinated efforts resulted within the takedown of 79 % of recognized suspicious IP addresses,” INTERPOL mentioned in an announcement. “Collaborating nations reported the seizure of 41 servers and over 100 GB of information, in addition to the arrest of 32 suspects linked to unlawful cyber actions.”
Vietnamese authorities arrested 18 suspects, and confiscated units, SIM playing cards, enterprise registration paperwork, and cash price $11,500. Additional home raids have led to the arrest of one other 12 folks in Sri Lanka and two people in Nauru.
The Hong Kong Police, per INTERPOL, recognized 117 command-and-control servers hosted throughout 89 web service suppliers. These servers had been designed to behave as a hub to launch and handle malicious campaigns, corresponding to phishing, on-line fraud, and social media scams.
Nations concerned in Operation Safe embody Brunei, Cambodia, Fiji, Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Laos, Macau (China), Malaysia, Maldives, Nauru, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.
The event comes weeks after a worldwide operation led to the seizure of two,300 domains related to the Lumma Stealer malware.
Info stealers, typically bought on the cybercrime underground on a subscription foundation, are seen as a stepping stone for risk actors to achieve unauthorized entry to focus on networks. These malicious applications make it doable to siphon browser credentials, passwords, cookies, bank card particulars, and cryptocurrency pockets information from contaminated machines.
The stolen info is then monetized within the type of logs on numerous boards, enabling different actors to conduct follow-on assaults, together with ransomware, information breaches, and enterprise e-mail compromise (BEC).
Singapore-headquartered Group-IB, which was one of many non-public sector corporations that participated within the operation, mentioned it supplied mission-critical intelligence associated to person accounts compromised by stealer malware like Lumma, RisePro, and Meta Stealer.
“The compromised credentials and delicate information acquired by cybercriminals by way of infostealer malware typically function preliminary vectors for monetary fraud and ransomware assaults,” mentioned Dmitry Volkov, CEO of Group-IB.
