Europol-coordinated global operation takes down pro-Russian cybercrime
network
[July 17, 2025]
By MIKE CORDER
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A coordinated international operation has
hit the infrastructure of a pro-Russian cybercrime network linked to a
string of denial of service attacks targeting Ukraine and its allies,
the European Union's police agency Europol announced Wednesday.
Codenamed Eastwood, the operation targeted the so-called NoName057(16)
group, which was identified last month by Dutch authorities as being
behind a series of denial-of-service attacks on several municipalities
and organizations linked to a NATO summit in the Netherlands.
Europol said that the cybercrime network was also involved in attacks in
Sweden, Germany and Switzerland.
The police agency said the international operation “led to the
disruption of an attack-infrastructure consisting of over one hundred
computer systems worldwide, while a major part of the group’s central
server infrastructure was taken offline.”
Law enforcement and judicial authorities from France, Finland, Germany,
Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech
Republic, the Netherlands and the United States took simultaneous
actions against offenders and infrastructure belonging to the
pro-Russian cybercrime network, it said.
Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens
of attacks, sabotage attempts and other incidents across Europe since
the invasion of Ukraine, including cyberattacks. The Associated Press is
tracking them in a detailed map that shows the breadth of efforts to sow
division in European societies and undermine support for Ukraine.
As part of the latest operation, judicial authorities in Germany issued
six arrest warrants for suspects in Russia, two of them accused of being
the main leaders of the group, Europol said. Five of them were
identified on Europol's Europe's Most Wanted website.
One suspect was placed under preliminary arrest in France and another
detained in Spain, Europol said. The Paris prosecutor’s office said one
person is in custody in France and communications equipment has been
seized. No charges have yet been filed. In the United States, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the operation.
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The attorney general’s office in Switzerland, which is not an EU
member country, said in a statement Wednesday that joint
investigations between Europol and Swiss federal police helped
identify three leading members of the group, which is alleged to
have targeted more than 200 Swiss websites.
Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal case over the incidents in June
2023, and since then identified several other denial-of-service
attacks attributed to the activist group. The attacks included a
video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the
Swiss parliament and the popular Eurovision Song Contest, held in in
Basel earlier this year.
Europol said members of the cybercrime group initially targeted
Ukrainian institutions, “but have shifted their focus to attacking
countries that support Ukraine in the ongoing defence against the
Russian war of aggression, many of which are members of NATO.”
Law enforcement authorities in countries involved in the operation
contacted hundreds of people believed to support the group to inform
them of the crackdown and their alleged liability for its actions.
“Individuals acting for NoName057(16) are mainly Russian-speaking
sympathisers who use automated tools to carry out distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Operating without formal
leadership or sophisticated technical skills, they are motivated by
ideology and rewards,” Europol said.
It added that people recruited by the group were paid in
cryptocurrency and motivated using online-gaming dynamics like
leader boards and badges.
“This gamified manipulation, often targeted at younger offenders,
was emotionally reinforced by a narrative of defending Russia or
avenging political events,” Europol said.
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Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Geir Moulson in
Berlin and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.
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