Cybercriminals in Ukraine offered 300 million user data

Ukraine is currently experiencing one of the biggest global data scandals. In the meantime, 51 suspects have already been arrested for selling personal data of EU and US citizens. Data of about 300 million people is said to have been offered for sale in dubious forums.

Big blow to cybercrime

Ukrainian law enforcement officials have scored a giant blow against global cybercrime. After extensive investigations, authorities struck in November. A total of 51 suspects were arrested in the course of raids. The charge? They allegedly offered sensitive data of US and EU citizens for sale in relevant forums. The authorities now have nearly 100 databases as evidence. The raids that brought the data theft to light were also staged directly by the Ukrainian authorities. The law enforcement agency published a video showing officers using a chainsaw to gain access to the suspects’ homes. On top of that, it was possible to observe that the experts were sifting through the first data carriers.

Website was taken offline

Officials have also been active away from the arrests. For example, one of the big players in the field of “online stores” for stolen data had been taken offline. This was used by many of the cybercriminals taken into custody to sell the data. If you take a look at what data was offered for sale there, you can really get scared. In addition to full names, phone numbers and home addresses, it was also possible in some cases to view data on the vehicle of the respective user. In some cases, however, the criminals did not even go down the Internet route. Instead, they even used simple messengers or social media to sell their “goods. With user data from a total of 300 million people, this naturally adds up to a lot of data. The authorities are talking about 90,000 gigabytes.

Ukraine follows words with deeds

For many years, Ukraine was considered a real Mecca for cybercrime. Naturally, the country would like to shake off this bad reputation. To achieve this, Ukrainian authorities set themselves the goal last year of focusing more on cybercrime. The plan is already bearing fruit. For example, law enforcement has already prevented various DDoS attacks and even turned in a group that put ransomware into circulation.