Polish police arrrest five in swoop on cyber crime site

Polish police arrested five people suspected of being responsible for running a web platform that has been used to launch cyberattacks around the world, European policing agency Europol said on Friday.

Europol said LolekHosted.net, a bulletproof hosting service - meaning an opaque infrastructure registration site that helps cyber criminals to anonymously conduct intrusions - had all of its servers seized and was no longer in operation.

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was also involved in the case, Europol said.

"The complex investigation... revealed how the service facilitated the distribution information-stealing malware, and also the launching of DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks, fictitious online shops, Botnet server management and distribution of spam messages worldwide," Europol said.

A botnet is a group of compromised internet-connected devices that can be manipulated to cause digital havoc. Hackers build, buy and rent out botnets in order to conduct cyber crimes ranging from advertising fraud to large cyberattacks.

The agency said that the operators of the service had demanded payment in cryptocurrencies and used slogans such as "You can host anything here!" and "no-log policy".

In a separate statement the Polish Central Cybercrime Bureau said hundreds of servers had been seized, as well as numerous pieces of computer equipment mobile phones and cryptocurrencies.