North Africa, Southeast Asia, and Middle East oil and gas companies became cyberfraud victims.
Interpol arrested three citizens of Nigeria in the country’s capital city Lagos as a part of an international operation dubbed Killer Bee. The men were suspected of using Agent Tesla remote administration tools (RAT) to redirect financial operations and corporate classified data theft. The search showed that the suspects had fake documents, including invoices and official letters.
Agent Tesla showed up for the first time in 2014. It is an extremely popular RAT-Trojan used for credential stealing, keylogging, clipboard data obtaining, and collecting other information from the victims. Cybercriminal syndicates and stand-alone hackers use Agent Tesla widely because of its stability, flexibility, and broad functionality.
The headquarters of the General Secretariat and the National central bureau of Interpol, together with law-enforcement agencies in 11 South Asian countries, took part in the Killer Bee operation.
Photo: INTERPOL
Hendrix Omorume – one of the three suspects has already been charged and convicted for three episodes of financial fraud, and he faces a year in jail. The two other Nigerians are now under trial.
“Through its global police network and constant monitoring of cyberspace, Interpol had the globally sourced intelligence needed to alert Nigeria to a serious security threat where millions could have been lost without swift police action,” – Craig Jones, the Interpol’s Director of Cybercrime stated. He added: “Further arrests and prosecutions are foreseen worldwide as intelligence continues to come in and investigations unfold.”
