Joint Multi-Nation Fight Against Cybercriminals Rolls Out in Operation Endgame

The FBI has disclosed that 12 countries joined Operation Endgame, launched on May 28 as the first coordinated global law enforcement drive against cybercriminals.

According to the bureau, authorities from the United States, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom synchronized the operation, with the help of the European Union’s Europol and Eurojust. Law enforcers in Ukraine, Portugal, Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Switzerland also extended their support, FBI .gov reported Thursday.

The FBI’s field offices in Charlotte, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Los Angeles and Cleveland conducted the operation in close coordination with other U.S. law enforcement agencies and counterparts in the participating countries.

Operation Endgame activities sought to neutralize the threats of the malware groups IcedID, Smokeloader, Pikabot and Bumblebee, whose victims included a U.S. hospital network. More than 100 suspected malicious servers were disrupted or taken down during the operation’s police actions, which also included searches, interrogations and arrests of suspects using malware to steal victims’ login information, the FBI said. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray, who discussed the bureau’s “joint, sequenced operations” against cybercriminals in an earlier forum, said Operation Endgame shows the FBI’s continuing war against malicious cyber actors. Countermeasures against cyberattacks do not end in the operation, with the bureau committed to fighting an “ever-evolving threat,” he added.