Polish Authorities nab hacker group responsible for multiple cybercrimes

Polish authorities, the Police Centre Bureau of Investigation, took down a hacker group that has been rampant in the country for the past one year. The group is responsible for several phishing incidents, ransomware attacks, fake bomb threats, and multiple cyber fraud cases. Authorities arrested four individuals for all the above-mentioned charges, along with SIM-swapping and malware distribution. Four more individuals are under investigation. 

The four arrested people are Kamil S a.k.a “Razzputin”, Pawel K a.k.a “Manster_Team”, Janusz K, and Lukasz K.

Local media reports suggest that the hacker group has been under Polish authorities’ radar since May 2019. At the time, a local man found and hired them online to send a bomb threat, using the guise of a rival businessman. 

Fake bomb threats

In June 2019, the group sent threats to more than 1000 kindergarten schools across the country in a span of two days. More than 10,000 people were evacuated in that incident. Investigators revealed that for each fake bomb threat the hackers sent, they demanded approximately ,300 in payment. 

Ransomware, phishing, and SIM-swapping

The group proved its expertise in breaching all kinds of security when it initiated several malware attacks in the country. Authorities discovered that the hackers are linked to 87 different malware distribution domains. This includes malware like Cerberus, Anubis, and Emotet.

Additionally, authorities established that the hackers would also steal personal information, order fake IDS  from the dark web, and use them to transfer the victim’s account to the hackers SIM cards. This enabled them to commit bank fraud on a large scale. Many times, hackers also bypassed 2FA security. Reportedly, they stole more than $100,000 using this technique.

Fake online retail

Apart from bank fraud, the hacker group also posed as Ponzi online retailers and sold nonexistent products to more than 10,000 unsuspecting customers.