Avalanche Network Cybercrime Syndicate, Hacking, Pennsylvania 2023

Avalanche Network Cybercrime Syndicate, Hacking, Pennsylvania 2023

A complex and sophisticated network of computer servers known as “Avalanche” has been dismantled in an international cyber operation involving arrests and searches in four countries, the Justice Department announced today.

The Avalanche network allegedly hosted more than two dozen of the world’s most pernicious types of malicious software and several money laundering campaigns.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Soo C. Song of the Western District of Pennsylvania and Special Agent in Charge Robert Johnson of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Division made the announcement.

“For years, sophisticated cyber criminals have used our own technology against us—but as their networks have grown more complex and widespread, criminals increasingly rely on an international infrastructure as well,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “Avalanche is just one example of a criminal infrastructure dedicated to facilitating privacy invasions and financial crimes on a global scale. And now a multinational law enforcement coalition has turned the tables on the criminals, by targeting not just individual actors, but the entire Avalanche infrastructure. Successful operations like this one can disrupt an entire criminal ecosystem in one strike.”

The operation also involved an unprecedented effort to seize, block and sinkhole more than 800,000 malicious domains associated with the Avalanche network.

The types of malware and money mule schemes operating over the Avalanche network varied. Ransomware such as Nymain, for example, encrypted victims’ computer files until the victim paid a ransom (typically in a form of electronic currency) to the cybercriminal. Other malware, such as GozNym, was designed to steal victims’ sensitive banking credentials and use those credentials to initiate fraudulent wire transfers.

Defendant: Not specified. Exact criminal charges: Not specified. City and state: Not specified. Exact date: Not specified. Sentence or outcome: Not specified. Dollar amounts: Not specified.

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