Group-IB participates in Europol-coordinated operation that saves €14 mln for European banks

Group-IB, one of the global cybersecurity leaders, has taken part in а cross-border operation Carding Action 2021, coordinated by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), for the second consecutive year. This year’s pan-European anti-fraud effort was led by the Italian law enforcement agencies and supported by the United Kingdom, leading card schemes, and Group-IB.

Carding Action 2021 targeted fraudsters trading compromised payment records on card shops and underground marketplaces. Although the results are still being analyzed, with information on 49,761 compromised cards (1/4 of the data provided by Group-IB) having been processed so far, it is clear that the savings for European citizens and the dent in the cybercrime world will exceed the Carding Action 2020 figures of 40 million euro. Further insights into Carding Action 2021 will be unveiled by Jorge Rosal Cosano, Team Leader at the Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), at Group-IB’s CyberCrimeCon 2021 on Thursday, December 2.

Over a three-month period, Group-IB Threat Intelligence team identified, extracted, and analyzed information about freshy compromised payment records issued by the European financial institutions. The data was collected from several proprietary sources such as botnet and JS-sniffer infrastructure, as well as underground card shops and marketplaces monitored by Group-IB Threat Intelligence & Attribution system. According to Europol’s statement, 12 illicit sellers involved in auctioning of compromised records were identified as part of this three-month operation.

Group-IB worked in close cooperation with the law enforcement authorities of the countries involved in the framework of the Carding Action, and with the card schemes (payment processing networks) that estimated the savings by looking at the unique cards that were detected and flagged by Group-IB and multiplied by the average spend on those cards. The total losses prevented are estimated at €14 million, after 1/4 of the analysis has been concluded.

Group-IB continues to hold true to its major principle of zero tolerance for cybercrime. Public-private partnerships and joint initiatives like the Carding Action continue to play a key role in our strategy to disrupt cybercrime activities globally.

Nicholas Palmer

Head of Global Business at Group-IB

Last year, Group-IB took part in Carding Action 2020, an operation led by Europol’s European Cyber Crimecentre (EC3), with the support from law enforcement agencies including the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit of the London Metropolitan and the City of London Police. The three-month anti-cybercrime effort targeted traders of compromised card details and prevented approximately €40 million in losses.

About Group-IB

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Singapore, Group-IB is a leading creator of cybersecurity technologies to investigate, prevent, and fight digital crime. Combating cybercrime is in the company’s DNA, shaping its technological capabilities to defend businesses, citizens, and support law enforcement operations.

Group-IB’s Digital Crime Resistance Centers (DCRCs) are located in the Middle East, Europe, Central Asia, and Asia-Pacific to help critically analyze and promptly mitigate regional and country-specific threats. These mission-critical units help Group-IB strengthen its contribution to global cybercrime prevention and continually expand its threat-hunting capabilities.

Group-IB’s decentralized and autonomous operational structure helps it offer tailored, comprehensive support services with a high level of expertise. We map and mitigate adversaries’ tactics in each region, delivering customized cybersecurity solutions tailored to risk profiles and requirements of various industries, including retail, healthcare, gambling, financial services, manufacturing, crypto, and more.

The company’s global security leaders work in synergy with some of the industry’s most advanced technologies to offer detection and response capabilities that eliminate cyber disruptions agilely.

Group-IB’s Unified Risk Platform (URP) underpins its conviction to build a secure and trusted cyber environment by utilizing intelligence-driven technology and agile expertise that completely detects and defends against all nuances of digital crime. The platform proactively protects organizations’ critical infrastructure from sophisticated attacks while continuously analyzing potentially dangerous behavior all over their network.

The comprehensive suite includes the world’s most trusted Threat Intelligence, The most complete Fraud Protection, AI-powered Digital Risk Protection, Multi-layered protection with Managed Extended Detection and Response (XDR), All-infrastructure Business Email Protection, and External Attack Surface Management.

Furthermore, Group-IB’s full-cycle incident response and investigation capabilities have consistently elevated industry standards. This includes the 77,000+ hours of cybersecurity incident response completed by our sector-leading DFIR Laboratory, more than 1,400 successful investigations completed by the High-Tech Crime Investigations Department, and round-the-clock efforts of CERT-GIB.

Time and again, its solutions and services have been revered by leading advisory and analyst agencies such as Aite Novarica, Gartner®, Forrester, Frost & Sullivan, KuppingerCole Analysts AG, and more.

Being an active partner in global investigations, Group-IB collaborates with international law enforcement organizations such as INTERPOL, EUROPOL and AFRIPOL to create a safer cyberspace. Group-IB is also a member of the Europol European Cybercrime Centre’s (EC3) Advisory Group on Internet Security, which was created to foster closer cooperation between Europol and its leading non-law enforcement partners.