Police in Ukraine have arrested a 28-year-old man suspected of a cyber attack on the Dutch VDL in 2021. The attack caused millions of euros in damage at the time. The suspect was already arrested in April, but this has only now been made public.
The Eindhoven VDL Group was infected with malware from the Russian hacker group Conti in October 2021, which encrypted company information and made it inaccessible. The group of cybercriminals behind the attack demanded a ransom in exchange for not leaking and releasing the company data. VDL then reported the matter to the police.
Over the past 2.5 years, the police High Tech Crime Team has been investigating the case. Partly thanks to a tip from the NCSC, the identity of the cybercriminal who infected VDL's networks could be determined, Omroep Brabant now writes. The Public Prosecution Service made a request for legal assistance to Ukraine, after which the local police in Kyiv and the Kharkiv region carried out house searches. The 28-year-old suspect was arrested in Kyiv on April 18. Computer equipment, mobile phones and documents were seized for further investigation.
The suspect has not been announced. It is also not yet clear whether and when the Ukrainian will be extradited to the Netherlands for prosecution.
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