The first two paragraphs say:
The Department of Justice (DoJ) says it has suspended four web domains that were being used to sell malware capable of hijacking computers for criminal purposes. Two men have also been arrested in connection with the scheme.
Feds in Boston took down www.warzone.ws and three related domains, which they say were being used to sell Warzone remote access trojan (RAT) malware.
The .ws TLD is not necessarily a new one as of recent, but I don’t know how old the TLD is. This TLD is governed by Samoa, otherwise known as Western Samoa at some point.The name is SamoaNIC.
I don’t believe the article mention what other sites were affected.
It continues:
“Specifically, Meli allegedly assisted cybercriminals seeking to use RATs for malicious purposes and offered teaching tools for sale, including an eBook,” said the DoJ. “Meli also allegedly sold both the Warzone RAT and, before that, malware known as the Pegasus RAT, which he sold through an online criminal organization called Skynet-Corporation.”
This is one of multiple suspects mentioned within this article.
I believe I heard about this next suspectwhose paragraph says:
Prince Onyeoziri Odinakachi, 31, of Nigeria, has also been arrested and charged with crimes relating to the alleged Warzone scheme. He, too, faces extradition – to Massachusetts, where he has been charged with providing online ‘customer support’ between 2019 and 2023 to criminals who bought the Warzone RAT.
They are still looking for the first suspect.
“Daniel Meli will no longer escape accountability for his actions selling malware,” added US Attorney Ryan Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia. “This alleged cybercriminal facilitated the takeover and infection of computers worldwide. Our office was proud to partner with our federal and international counterparts to find Meli and bring him to justice.”
What gets me is the sentencing. The alst paragraph of the article says:
Both suspects potentially face years behind bars if they are tried and found guilty on an array of charges brought against them – that of damaging a protected computer alone carries a maximum sentence of a decade in prison.
A decade for destruction of computer systems? We get more for other crimes. They might not even get all of that time anyway.
The article is titled US takes down malware sites in cyber bust so please feel free to take a look at this if you want some good news.