Police departments in the UK, including London’s Metropolitan Police, worked in concert to break up cyber criminal ring ‘LabHost’ (source: Metropolitan Police)
18 Apr 2024by Martyn Wingrove
Police have broken up a global gang of cyber criminals after dawn raids and arrests
Law-enforcement bodies working together in 17 countries have taken down a criminal team accused of developing a technology service used by other cyber criminals to send fraudulent text messages and steal from victims.
Police actions targeted the gang’s site LabHost, which enabled phishing scams on millions of people worldwide in all industries and sectors.
Scammers without technical skills were using the site to bombard victims with messages to direct them to fake websites appearing to be legitimate online services for payment or shopping.
Police arrested 37 people worldwide in raids on 18 April, with most of the raids focused on the UK. Authorities in the UK said LabHost had enabled criminals to steal identity information, including 480,000 card numbers and 64,000 pin codes and made around US$1.25M in profits, according to news services.
Around 70 properties were searched worldwide, resulting in multiple arrests, following a two-year operation.
The dangers of phishing, online scams and infected USB drives to shipowners, operators and managers will be under discussion during Riviera Maritime Media’s Maritime Cyber Security Webinar Week, which runs 22-26 April 2024.
On Monday 22 April, a panel of experts will provide insight into methods of enhancing cyber-security awareness for seafarers and onshore staff in the Strengthening the human firewall: Tackling the cybersecurity awareness gap in maritime webinar, from 10:30 BST.
University of Plymouth lecturer in cyber security Rory Hopcraft, P&O Ferries programme manager for fuel and energy efficiency Martin O Rourke and TMS Group head of ICT and cyber security services Michalis Michaloliakos will share innovative approaches to raising cyber-security awareness across the maritime workforce and building a culture of cyber vigilance from ship to shore.
They will outline the common human errors that lead to maritime cyber incidents and discuss how companies should design engaging and behaviour-changing cyber-security awareness programmes for seafarers and shore teams.
The experts will also discuss how organisations can create a culture of cyber-risk ownership and open communication about incidents, train personnel with maritime cyber-security competencies and explore partnerships with academia and industry to build a maritime cyber-security talent pipeline.
Two other online webinars are planned: The power of LEO: Strategies for high-speed connectivity at sea on Thursday 25 April at 14:00, on which there are still panel spaces, and Speedcast-sponsored New mandatory cyber security requirements in 2024: How to keep your ship compliant 09:00 on Friday 26 April.