US authorities have announced the seizure of LolekHosted.net, the domain used by the bulletproof hosting service LolekHosted, as well as charges against its alleged operator.
According to court documents, the domain had been used for roughly a decade to provide customers with secure web hosting services that facilitated cybercriminal activities, including the distribution of ransomware and information stealers, phishing, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
An indictment unsealed on Friday claims that the domain LolekHosted.net was registered in 2014 by Artur Karol Grabowski, 36, a Polish national who allegedly operated the web hosting service company until the domain’s seizure.
Grabowski allegedly allowed LolekHosted clients to register accounts using false information, did not maintain IP address logs of client servers, changed those IP addresses, ignored abuse complaints from third parties and notified his clients of the legal inquiries he received.
He advertised LolekHosted as providing “100% privacy hosting,” allowing clients to perform all types of criminal activities, “except child porn”.
One of the illicit operations hosted on LolekHosted was the NetWalker ransomware, which made roughly 400 victims, including colleges, hospitals, law enforcement and emergency services, municipalities, school districts, and universities.
The LolekHosted servers, documents presented in court claim, were used to launch approximately 50 NetWalker ransomware attacks against victims worldwide. The servers were used as intermediaries, to store hacking tools and victim data.
The NetWalker ransomware operators, authorities say, have received more than $146 million worth of bitcoin in ransom payments.
If found guilty, Grabowski faces up to 45 years in prison and the forfeiture of $21.5 million.
LolekHosted’s seizure was the result of a cooperation between law enforcement agencies in the US and Poland, with assistance from Europol.
Five alleged administrators of the bulletproof hosting service were arrested in Poland, but Grabowski remains a fugitive.
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