Brit cops cuff 14 in £11m money-laundering malware ring sting

The UK’s National Crime Agency has arrested 14 people suspected of using the Dridex and Dyre malware to launder £11m in stolen cash.

The 13 men and one woman, some of whom were not British nationals, were aged between 23 and 52.

A dozen were arrested in London, and the other two in Daventry and West Bromwich.

Cash, mobile phones and computers were seized by the arresting cops, and the NCA said it had also seized what appeared to be forged ID documents.

Earlier this year, Dridex was described as “among the top three worst banking malware families,” which “borrows tricks from top villain Dyre, and is detected by only a handful of antivirus platforms.”

In February, part of the Dridex distribution net was hacked, seemingly in order to distribute copies of Avira’s free antivirus.

“Those responsible for writing, developing and deploying malware code also rely heavily on other organised criminals like money launderers, and their fraudulent proceeds can then be used to fund other criminality,” said Mike Hulett, the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit’s head of operations, speaking about yesterday’s arrests.

“The NCA has had tremendous support from colleagues across law enforcement and the banking industry to close down this money laundering network. Together we have made a hole in the system which will cause significant disruption to other organised criminals.” ®