Nearly 200 people, including minors accused of involvement in murder plots, have been arrested over the last six months as part of Europol's Operational Taskforce (OTF) GRIMM. The operation targets what cops call "violence-as-a-service" - crime crews recruiting kids and teens online to carry out contract killings and other real-world attacks. "These individuals are groomed or coerced into committing a range of violent crimes, from acts of intimidation and torture to murder," the European police said on Monday.
An international coalition of law enforcement agencies coordinated by Europol targeted and took down three cybercrime operations in its latest round of what authorities call "Operation Endgame." In a press release, Europol said that the police operation targeted the infostealing malware Rhadamanthys, a botnet called Elysium, and the remote access trojan VenomRAT. The authorities say all three "played a key role in international cybercrime." Police seized more than 1,000 servers as part of the operation.