Ukrainian Authorities Arrest 50+ Threat Actors, Seize PII of 300 Million People

A large-scale anti-cybercrime operation by Ukrainian authorities has resulted in over fifty (50) individual threat actors being arrested and having their assets seized accordingly. These threat actors have been tied to selling stolen personal identifiable information (PII) from millions of people worldwide on various deep/dark web forums and marketplaces. The PII that was exposed range from names, addresses, and phone numbers to even vehicle registration information. Authorities seized roughly one hundred (100) databases of PII, which included over 300 million citizens from the United States, Ukraine, and Europe. Additionally, this operation led to the seizure and shut down of the largest personal information distribution site, where information on Ukrainian and foreign citizens was being bought and sold daily. The Ukrainian operation resulted in 117 searches of locations tied to threat actors as well as over ninety (90) terabytes of data being removed from these locations. Ukraine has had a great uptick in the fight against cybercrime and are believed to still be tracking additional threat actors domestically. CTAPT will continue to monitor additional developments and provide updates as needed.