Peel Regional Police involved in international takedown of HIVE ransomware group (1 Viewing)

The international law enforcement operation involved 12 countries​

Rohan Puri
Mississauga News
Thursday, January 26, 2023
The infrastructure of a major international ransomware group that targeted businesses and individuals in several countries has been taken down, and its domain seized, Peel Regional Police said in a media release issued on Thursday, Jan. 26.

The international law enforcement operation involved 12 countries and a multi-year cross-border investigation into numerous cyber-attacks against governments, businesses, and individuals in the U.S., Europe, and Canada by HIVE ransomware group.

Peel Regional Police was the lead Canadian law enforcement agency involved in the operation, the release stated.

"I thank our dedicated Peel Regional Police investigators and federal law enforcement agencies within Canada, North America, and overseas for the success of this project and for our ongoing strategic partnerships," said Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich.

"These complex cybercrime investigative collaborations are making significant progress in disrupting and dismantling sophisticated, global cybercriminal enterprises. In working together with our national and international policing partners, we leverage the very best intelligence data to hold accountable those threat actors that victimize our communities."

Since the fall of 2021, at least 71 Canadian businesses and organizations have been victimized by the HIVE ransomware criminal group, resulting in lost productivity and financial impact, the release said.

On Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021, a business in the Region of Peel fell victim to a ransomware attack whereby their entire computer network was rendered inoperable, and a significant amount of data was compromised, police said.

According to the release, the suspects identified themselves as the HIVE Ransomware Group and demanded payment in bitcoin to decrypt the compromised data.

The victim did not pay the ransom, restoring their data via backups — a critical line of defence against ransomware attacks — and contacted the police.

Officers from Peel Regional Police Technical Crime Services commenced Project Nectar in May 2022 in collaboration with the National Cybercrime Coordination Centre into the disruption and dismantling of the HIVE ransomware group infrastructure.

Peel Regional Police involved in international takedown of HIVE ransomware group

Wow, about time

If it's bad stuff, it usually happens in Peel.

Maybe that's why hivebuilders.com didn't launch @FM