Two dozen arrested, hundreds of malicious IPs taken down in African cybercrime operation | CyberScoop<\/title> <meta name=\"description\" content=\"The cybercrime and fraud operations, including fraudulent art sales, were linked to financial losses of more than $40 million.\"> <link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/africa-cybercrime-operation-interpol\/\"> <meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\"> <meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\"> <meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two dozen arrested, hundreds of malicious IPs taken down in African cybercrime operation\"> <meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The cybercrime and fraud operations, including fraudulent art sales, were linked to financial losses of more than $40 million.\"> <meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/africa-cybercrime-operation-interpol\/\"> <meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CyberScoop\"> <meta property=\"article:published_time\" 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readability=\"0.82\"> <button class=\"stickybar__close js-stickybar-close\" aria-controls=\"stickybar\"> <svg class=\"icon icon--close\" width=\"21\" height=\"22\" viewBox=\"0 0 21 22\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"m.822.518-.805.805L9.695 11 .017 20.678l.805.805 9.678-9.678 9.677 9.678.806-.805L11.305 11l9.678-9.677-.806-.805-9.677 9.677L.822.518Z\" fill=\"currentColor\" \/><\/svg> <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Close<\/span> <\/button> <\/section>\n<article class=\"single-article content\">\n<div class=\"single-article__container js-single-article-content\">\n<header class=\"single-article__header \" readability=\"25.627240143369\">\n<div class=\"single-article__header-content\" readability=\"32.392156862745\">\n<ul class=\"single-article__eyebrow\">\n<li class=\"single-article__category\"> <a class=\"single-article__category-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/news\/threats\/cybercrime\/\"> <span>Cybercrime<\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> The cybercrime and fraud operations, including fraudulent art sales, were linked to financial losses of more than $40 million. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"single-article__cover-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"single-article__cover\"> <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1\" class=\"single-article__cover-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Blue sun visor with an Interpol sign.\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg?resize=252,168 252w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg?resize=506,337 506w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg?resize=1013,675 1013w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation-1.jpg?resize=1265,843 1265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1013px) 100vw, 1013px\"><figcaption> (Gwengoat\/Getty Images) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"single-article__content\">\n<div class=\"single-article__content-inner has-drop-cap\"> <html readability=\"22.500807754443\"><body readability=\"46.048059149723\"><\/p>\n<p>An international law enforcement operation spanning more than two dozen African countries led to 14 arrests and the takedown of hundreds of malicious IP addresses and malware hosters, Interpol said Friday. <\/p>\n<p>Africa Cyber Surge II \u2014 led by Interpol and supported with information from Group-IB, Trend Micro, Kaspersky and Coinbase \u2014 launched in April 2023 and focused on identifying cybercriminals and compromised infrastructure, Interpol <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interpol.int\/en\/News-and-Events\/News\/2023\/Cybercrime-14-arrests-thousands-of-illicit-cyber-networks-disrupted-in-Africa-operation\">said in a statement<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The private sector reports supporting the operation included information on 3,786 malicious command and control servers, 14,134 victim IP addresses linked to data stealer cases, 1,415 phishing links and domains, 939 scam IPs and more than 400 other malicious URLs, IPs and botnets, according to the statement. <\/p>\n<p>The various cybercrime and fraud operations, including fraudulent art sales and money mule operations, were linked to financial losses of more than $40 million, according to Interpol.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--inline_1 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The first Africa Cyber Surge operation, carried out between July and November 2022, included 10 arrests linked to various scams and alleged fraud worth roughly $800,000, a takedown of a Eritrean-based dark net market selling hacking tools and \u201cactions taken against more than 200,000 pieces of malicious infrastructure that was facilitating cybercrime across Africa,\u201d the Singapore-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.group-ib.com\/media-center\/press-releases\/africa-cyber-surge-operation\/?utm_source=press_release&utm_campaign=africa-cyber-surge-ii&utm_medium=organic\">Group-IB said in a statement at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities in 25 countries participated in the operation. Interpol\u2019s Cybercrime Directorate worked alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/afripol.africa-union.org\/\">Afripol<\/a>, which coordinates police operations across the African Union, to lead the law enforcement effort. <\/p>\n<p><\/body> <\/p>\n<footer class=\"single-article__footer\" readability=\"1.1781115879828\">\n<div class=\"author-card\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><h4 class=\"author-card__name\">Written by AJ Vicens<\/h4>\n<p> AJ covers nation-state threats and cybercrime. He was previously a reporter at Mother Jones. 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{"id":1572,"date":"2023-08-18T16:55:33","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T16:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/?p=76497"},"modified":"2023-08-18T16:55:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T16:55:33","slug":"two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/2023\/08\/18\/two-dozen-arrested-hundreds-of-malicious-ips-taken-down-in-african-cybercrime-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Two dozen arrested, hundreds of malicious IPs taken down in African cybercrime operation"},"content":{"rendered":"