Capcom hackers “taken down” in major international police operation
The Ragnar Locker ransomware group, which struck Capcom with a significant security breach back in 2020, has been corralled by an international police operation.
The hack disclosed the personal information of 350,000 players, employees and business partners that had been stored on Capcom’s servers.
The company expressed its “deepest apologies” to those affected in the attack and had notified the police and the data protection authorities in Japan and the United Kingdom.
Europol claimed that in an “action week” between October 16 and October 20 led by the French National Gendarmerie, officers arrested one of the main actors in the group in Paris. His home in Czechia was searched and five separate suspects were interviewed in Spain and Latvia.
The “key target” who had been located in Paris was presented to the examining magistrates of the Paris Judicial Court and the Ragnar Locker ransomware infrastructure was seized in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Also, its associated data leak website on Tor was taken down in Sweden. Owing to Ragnar Locker’s history of hitting critical infrastructure, including a hospital in Israel and TAP Air Portugal, they were a “high” threat to security.
“This investigation shows that once again international cooperation is the key to taking ransomware groups down,” said Edvardas Šileris, head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, in a statement.
“I hope this round of arrests sends a strong message to ransomware operators who think they can continue their attacks without consequence.”
According to data from the information assurance firm NCC Group, September saw a record number of ransomware attacks with 514 reported instances (via Bleeping Computer).
LockBit 3.0, LostTrust and BlackCat were the most prevalent actors on the list and the most targeted sectors were industrial businesses in North America.
RansomedVC also appeared in the data, however, Bleeping Computer noted that their claims about their hacks have occasionally been exaggerated.
In other gaming news, former PlayStation president Shawn Layden shared that he isn’t totally approving of acquisitions – “I’m just concerned about what it does to the creativity urge inside of the studios, and can they keep that sort of independent creativity alive or do they just get absorbed into the larger whole?”
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Imogen Donovan
NME
