A very experienced cyber investigator with the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), has been honoured for his help to dismantle the notorious LockBit ransomware gang in 2024 in the King’s New Year Honours. He was one of eight NCA officers to be recognised.
“Gavin has been awarded for his ‘tenacity and leadership’ on Operation Cronos, the international effort to dismantle the largest ransomware group in the world,” the NCA announced in a post on X last week.
Also see: Government Investing £210M On New Cyber Action Plan
“LockBit was responsible for a quarter of all global ransomware attacks between 2023 and 2024, and victims lost billions of pounds before specialist NCA officers seized control of LockBit’s own systems and stopped further attacks,” the NCA said.
Webb was in charge in the February 2024 Operation Cronos – an operation involving top international government agencies, disrupting the core infrastructure of the ransomware group “at every level.”
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Webb and the specialist NCA officers he was in charge of were able to take control of LockBit’s systems, leading to multiple arrests.
Also see: What Makes Your Device Easier To Hack
Their successes prevented the group from carrying out further attacks and destroyed their reputation in the criminal underworld, the NCA states.
The really clever part of Webb’s tactics implemented a “well-publicised and innovative” strategy which used LockBit’s own dark web site to notify the gang’s affiliates that the NCA had taken full control.
The strategy employed by the NCA was also used to expose the group’s leader, “LockBitSupp,” Dmitry Khoroshev, a Russian national, who, the NCA says, “had been so confident in his anonymity that he offered a $10m reward to anyone who could reveal his identity.” Khoroshev was never caught and is still believed to be living in Russia’
“These honours are well-deserved by the officers who have truly gone above and beyond to support victims and protect the public from the most serious and harmful crime,” the agency said.
Opinion
The NCA are always working away in the background protecting our security and finding these despicable cyber criminals and thwarting their attacks.
It was good to see their hard work and dedication recognised in the King’s New Year Honours, if it wasn’t for Gavin Webb and his team many people who would have been held to ransom by these disgusting individuals suffering massive losses.
