results of international anti-malware operation “meet expectations” of Anti-Cybercrime Office

“This is a case that required incredible cooperation, the results of which exceeded our expectations”said Thursday, May 30 on franceinfo, Commissioner Cécile Augeraud, deputy head of the Anti-Cybercrime Office (Ofac) at the Ministry of the Interior, while Europol announced that four people were arrested and more than 100 servers shut down. offline when “the largest operation ever carried out” against malware playing a major role in the deployment of ransomware.

The operation “is the fruit of very important international cooperation”, underlines Cécile Augeraud. “Six countries” were involved, with Europol, the European criminal police agency, Eurojust, the judicial cooperation unit of the European Union, as well as “three services” In France “coordinated by Ofac”. She points to a “very rare operation”, because “in the same case, we will deal with a whole series of malicious attackers which will allow us to put them out of harm’s way”. The commissioner recalls that in France, the attacks have “hundreds of victims”.

“Cybercriminals have no borders”explains the deputy head of Ofac. “Investigators who fight against cybercrime don’t have any either. We all have to work with each other.” These are “weeks of work in France and abroad” which made it possible to carry out this operation.

Cécile Augeraud admits that “Cyberattackers are able to reform their attack infrastructure.” But in this matter, “it is not one infrastructure, but multiple infrastructures that have fallen. This is where the strength of this case lies.” All the countries that collaborated “were able to incapacitate numerous cyberattackers whose victims are private companies, individuals, public administrations, and in particular hospitals.” In this global operation “we have not arrested any cybercriminals in France”, specifies the commissioner. But she warns that “Cybercriminals, there are of course in France as in many countries”.