Operation Tovar

Operation Tovar
Operation NameOperation Tovar
Roster
Executed byU.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.K. National Crime Agency
Countries ParticipatedUnited States, United Kingdom, South African Police Service, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Italy, and France
# of Countries Participated13
Mission
TargetGameover ZeuS botnet
Methodundisclosed
Timeline
Date beginBefore June 2014
Results
Arrests2+
Accounting

Operation Tovar was an international collaborative operation carried out by law enforcement agencies from multiple countries against the Gameover ZeuS botnet, which was believed by the investigators to have been used in bank fraud and the distribution of the CryptoLocker ransomware.[1]

In early June 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Operation Tovar had temporarily succeeded in cutting communication between Gameover ZeuS and its command-and-control servers.[1][2][3]

The criminals attempted to send a copy of their database to a safe location, but it was intercepted by agencies already in control of part of the network.

  1. ^ a b Storm, Darlene (June 2, 2014). "Wham bam: Global Operation Tovar whacks CryptoLocker ransomware & GameOver Zeus botnet". Computerworld. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference krebs2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "U.S. Leads Multi-National Action Against "Gameover Zeus" Botnet and "Cryptolocker" Ransomware, Charges Botnet Administrator" (Press release). U.S. Department of Justice. 2 June 2014. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2020.