Emotet, one of the world’s more notorious botnets in the world, has been wrecking chaos all over the internet for half a decade. However, a massive global police investigation has allegedly resulted in Emotet’s takedown and the arrest of multiple operators and members of the criminal operation behind the botnet. Europol announced the culmination of the global effort, which included a coalition of law enforcement agencies across the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Ukraine, and the Netherlands, earlier this week, calling the botnet the most dangerous malware in the world.
The global law enforcement operation was referred to as Operation Ladybird and consisted of private security researchers collaborating with the coalition to disrupt and compromise the botnet’s command and control infrastructure. Ukrainian police successfully detained at least two of Emotet crew’s Ukrainian members whereas other countries also took measures to find and apprehend those responsibly. A video of the Ukrainian raid has been released, depicting officers seizing computer equipment, cash, and rows of gold bars. The hackers have not been named and it is unclear what their roles were.
Read More: Cops Disrupt Emotet, the Internet’s ‘Most Dangerous Malware’
