Greece authorities have arrested a thirty eight year old man in Athens as part of Europol’s international action against cybercrime. The arrest took place during a major phase of Operation Endgame, a coordinated effort across several countries to dismantle malware networks that have infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world.
Europol said the latest phase of the operation involved ten countries, including the United States. The crackdown focused on the infostealer Rhadamanthys, the Remote Access Trojan VenomRAT and the botnet Elysium.
According to Europol, the malware systems taken down this week were linked to hundreds of thousands of compromised computers that contained several million stolen login details. Many victims were unaware that their devices had been infected. In total, authorities disrupted or removed one thousand and twenty five servers worldwide and seized twenty domains.
Greece police said the arrested man, an Albanian national, is believed to be the creator and seller of VenomRAT since 2020. He was taken into custody on November 3 under a European arrest warrant issued by France. Europol stated, “The main suspect behind the infostealer had access to over one hundred thousand crypto wallets belonging to these victims, potentially worth millions of euros.”
Police said VenomRAT was created to steal sensitive information through keystroke recording, remote webcam access, text capture and cryptocurrency wallet hacking. The malware was reportedly sold for prices ranging from one hundred and fifty euros a month to one thousand five hundred and fifty euros a year.
During a search of the suspect’s home, police found versions of the malware source code, evidence of a website used to promote the malware, suspicious emails and multiple cryptocurrency accounts. Officers confiscated seven hard drives, three USB sticks and a digital wallet containing cryptocurrencies valued at one hundred and forty thousand four hundred and twenty four dollars, along with other items.
A police official said the malware’s digital infrastructure was hosted on a server belonging to a company in France. Authorities in France and the United States have also opened investigations.
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