Two people were arrested in the Charleroi region on Monday as part of an international police operation against malware used by cyber criminals to hack personal data, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed.
The Federal Computer Crime Unit (FCCU) services carried out a house search near the Walloon city of Charleroi on Monday this week. Two people were taken in for questioning. One was released that evening whilst the other (born in 2003) will appear before an investigating judge on Tuesday. Here, it will be decided whether to issue an arrest warrant.
"This action is part of the international operation ‘MAGNUS’ targeting the infostealers ‘RedLine’ and ‘META’," the Prosecutor's spokesperson said. "It involves malware used by cyber criminals to hack personal data to sell or misuse it."
These so-called "infostealers" are among the largest malware platforms and have caused millions of victims worldwide. RedLine and META allow hackers to steal personal data from "infected" devices, including usernames, passwords and data from fill-in forms that are automatically stored.
The data was then sold through criminal marketplaces to other criminals, who could then use the personal data to steal money or cryptocurrency or carry out further hacking. The Prosecutor's Office added that the investigation is, therefore, being extended to the users of the stolen data.
Cross-border operation
The investigation into these malware platforms started after several victims came forward to authorities and a security firm warned that several servers in the Netherlands could be linked to the "infostealers". Further investigation revealed that the malware was running on as many as 1,200 servers in dozens of countries.
Police in Belgium worked closely with authorities in the Netherlands, the United States and the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) as part of an investigation codenamed "Operation Magnus".
This joint operation has resulted in three servers being taken down and two domains being seized in the Netherlands. Four Telegram channels and four bots have also been taken offline.
A message and video published online by police warned cybercriminals stealing data that the authorities "could put an end to their activities thanks to the crucial information seized during the searches". A tool has also been developed to allow people check if their data has been stolen and inform victims what to do next.
