Romanian police have arrested two Romanians for operating two malware crypter services, called CyberSeal and DataProtector, and the malware testing service, CyberScan.
The arrests of the two Romanians are the result of a joint operation carried out by the FBI, Europol and the police authorities of Australia and Norway.
“Two Romanian suspects were arrested for allegedly operating the encryption services CyberSeal and Dataprotector to avoid detection by antivirus software,” says the press release published by Europol. “These services have been purchased by more than 1560 criminals and have been used to encrypt several different types of malware, including remote access Trojans, info stealers and ransomware. The two criminals also operated the Cyberscan service, which allowed customers to test their malware to make sure it evaded tools antivirus.”
Crypter services are used by vxers to make the malware code undetectable.
The international cooperation to arrest the suspects was carried out through the EMPACT program and with the support of the Join Action Crime Task Force (J-CAT).
The Cyberscan service, like the legitimate VirusTotal, allows users to test their malware to see if it is detected by antivirus tools.
Malware writers use it to scan their malware and check if it is detected by software . However, unlike the legitimate VirusTotal, CyberScan does not share scan results with antivirus vendors.
“Customers paid between $40 and $300 for the encryption services. The service was well-structured and offered regular updates and customer support,” the press release continues.
Prices for the malware testing service ranged between $7 and $40.
The two Romanians have been active since at least 2014, when CyberSeal was released. DataProtector was released in 2015, while CyberScan was released in 2019.
Police searched four homes in Bucharest and Craiova and arrested the two Romanian administrators of the malware services. Police managed to shut down the backend infrastructure in Romania, Norway, and the United States.
Source: Security Affairs
