The U.S. Justice Department said an Iranian security ministry operates the fake activist persona known as Handala, which claimed responsibility for the destructive hack targeting medical tech giant Stryker.
The FBI and the Justice Department took down two websites linked to the pro-Iranian hacktivist group Handala, which last week hacked medical tech giant Stryker.
An international law enforcement operation shut down a service called SocksEscort, which allegedly helped cybercriminals all over the world launch ransomware and DDoS attacks, as well as distribute child sexual abuse material.
Authorities say LeakBase was “one of the world’s largest online forums for cybercriminals,” and maintained an archive of hacked databases containing hundreds of millions of passwords.
The hacker allegedly developed zero-day exploits and offensive cyber tools and sold them to several countries, including an unnamed central African government, the U.K., and the United States.
Prosecutors confirmed Peter Williams, the former Trenchant boss, sold eight exploits to a Russian buyer. TechCrunch exclusively reported that the Trenchant division was investigating a leak of its hacking tools, after another employee was accused of involvement.