Ukraine picks up important cyber criminals

kiev - An important cyber criminal has been arrested in Ukraine. Gennadi Kapkanov was arrested Sunday in Kiev, reported the Ukrainian police Monday. He would have led the Avalanche network.

Avalanche had taken over hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide. These were used, among other things, for DDoS attacks. If many systems are sent to a specific site at the same time, it will collapse under pressure and the site will become unreachable.

Avalanche also tried to get hold of user names and passwords for internet banking. In addition, the makers wanted to lock computers with host software. The damage of Avalanche was probably hundreds of millions of euros.

The network was removed from the air in 2016. Hundreds of servers were closed and hundreds of thousands of domain names were blocked. It was one of the biggest actions against cybercrime ever. A total of thirty countries were involved in the operation, including the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States, but also countries such as Belize and Moldova. The investigation into the group lasted four years.

Kapkanov was arrested at the time, but he was released and disappeared with the northern sun.