Cybersecurity: hacker group Lockbit has apparently been disbanded

The Lockbit group has been a big fish in the field of cybercrime for years. It has now apparently been caught by a consortium of international criminal authorities.

Most successful hacker group of all time

Hacker attacks are no longer just the preserve of government institutions. Large, medium-sized and even small companies have long been attacked by cyber criminals. Lockbit is one of the best known and, unfortunately, most successful groups. As part of ransomware attacks, the criminals primarily blackmailed larger companies in order to extract immensely high payments from them. Only a few remained steadfast and did not hand over a single cent. For example, the world-famous tire manufacturer Continental, which itself fell victim to such ransomware. Unfortunately, many other companies were less defensive, which allowed Lockbit to scam a lot of money.

But perhaps Lockbit has finally been put out of business. At least several international law enforcement agencies have good news to announce in this regard. According to their own statements, they have succeeded in breaking up the group. Europol and the FBI, the two largest law enforcement agencies in the USA and the EU, were also involved. However, other international police authorities also took part in the coup. This is according to consistent reports from Bloomberg and Reuters.

Authorities take over Lockbit website

To publicize their success, the criminal authorities immediately made it known that they had taken over the hacker group’s website. Since February 19, 2024, it has been possible to read that the website is now under the control of the law enforcement authorities. The counterattack by the authorities also proved successful on the darknet. Officials were apparently also able to hijack the numerous mirror sites that Lockbit operated on the darknet.

Infrastructure just the beginning?

Of course, the authorities cannot deny the success of the successful strike against Lockbit. But despite all the joy, it must also be remembered that there are people behind the website who are currently still at large. If they are not also caught, it will probably only be a matter of time before a “Lockbit 2.0” finds its way onto the World Wide Web. However, this is top secret information that has not yet been released by the authorities. It is possible that a large-scale operation is still underway in which those behind it are arrested.