An worldwide legislation enforcement operation involving the FBI and police companies worldwide led to the arrest of the suspected administrator of the NetWire distant entry trojan and the seizure of the service’s internet area and internet hosting server.
NetWire was a distant entry trojan promoted as a legit distant administration instrument to handle a Windows laptop remotely.
The service was bought by way of the web site www.worldwiredlabs.com, the place customers might join subscriptions for as little as $10 a month, which included assist.
However, since at the least 2014, NetWire has been a instrument of alternative in varied malicious actions, together with phishing assaults, BEC campaigns, and to breach company networks.
Threat actors might use the Netwire RAT to remotely take screenshots, obtain and add recordsdata, execute instructions, or obtain additional applications to execute on contaminated Windows computer systems.
NetWire infrastructure seized by police
Today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California introduced {that a} seizure warrant was authorised on March third and executed in a coordinated worldwide legislation enforcement operation on Tuesday to disrupt the NetWire service.
This operation concerned police from the FBI, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, the Croatia Ministry of the Interior Criminal Police Directorate, Zurich Cantonal Police, Europol, and the Australian Federal Police.
As a part of this operation, the FBI seized the worldwiredlabs.com area used to advertise the service, and police in Switzerland seized the server internet hosting the web site.
The web site now shows a seizure message, stating, “This Website Has Been Seized as a part of a coordinated legislation enforcement motion taken towards the NetWire Remote Access Trojan.”
Source: BleepingComputer
A Croatian nationwide suspected to be the administrator of the NetWire web site was additionally arrested on Tuesday in Croatia and shall be prosecuted by native authorities.
“By eradicating the Netwire RAT, the FBI has impacted the felony cyber ecosystem,” stated Donald Alway, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
“The world partnership that led to the arrest in Croatia additionally eliminated a well-liked instrument used to hijack computer systems so as to perpetuate world fraud, knowledge breaches and community intrusions by menace teams and cyber criminals.”