Interpol, an international police organization, has arrested nearly 3,500 people allegedly connected to cybercrime in a sweeping operation announced on Tuesday.
300 million worth of assets across 34 countries were reportedly seized.
Malicious hacks have dominated the news cycle recently, as Interpol's operation reported a 200% surge in arrests this year.
Comcast experienced a data breach affecting 36 million accounts according to the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, potentially compromising every single Xfinity account.
Ransomware gang Rhysida also exposed an upcoming Marvel video game from PlayStation on Tuesday, alongside passport scans of game developers.
Just last month, 23andMe lost the biodata of 6.9 million customers in a hack.
In a time where data hacks feel like they keep getting worse, it's relieving to hear there are 3,500 fewer cybercriminals in the world.
A majority of the arrests were related to investment fraud, business email compromise, and e-commerce fraud the agency said.
Haechi IV alerted participating countries about two novel tactics used by cybercriminals.
Interpol found that AI-generated content was used several times in impersonation scams, online sexual blackmail, and investment fraud throughout the United Kingdom.
Voice cloning technology was often used to impersonate people known to the victims.
The sale of NFTs was another scam tactic Interpol identified, commonly found in Korea, in which victims are promised high returns for their investments.
These decoy crypto projects are often abandoned after the initial investment.
Both of these scams utilize new technologies that exploit people's limited understanding of the subject.
This Cyber News was published on packetstormsecurity.com. Publication date: Wed, 20 Dec 2023 13:43:49 +0000