{"id":1998763,"date":"2023-08-12T12:32:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T16:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lolek-bulletproof-hosting-server-seized-for-aiding-ransomware-attacks\/"},"modified":"2023-08-12T12:35:07","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T16:35:07","slug":"lolek-bulletproof-hosting-server-seized-for-aiding-ransomware-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lolek-bulletproof-hosting-server-seized-for-aiding-ransomware-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Lolek&#8217;s &#8216;Bulletproof&#8217; Server Seized for Assisting Ransomware Attacks."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flolek-bulletproof-hosting-server-seized-for-aiding-ransomware-attacks%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1998763&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>U.S. Authorities Seize &#8220;Bulletproof&#8221; Hosting Service Provider for Facilitating Ransomware \u200bAttacks<\/h2>\n<p>On August 11, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of LolekHosted, a &#8220;bulletproof&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-ethics-group-likely-failed-to-disclose-lobbying-experts-say\/\" title=\"Supreme Court 'ethics' group may have concealed lobbying, experts suggest.\">hosting service provider<\/a> accused of enabling ransomware attacks on \u200c400 networks. The District Court for the Middle District of Florida issued the seizure warrant, and now the \u2063server prominently\u200d displays a banner indicating that it has been seized by federal authorities.<\/p>\n<h3>Charges \u2062Against Artur Karol Grabowski<\/h3>\n<p>Artur Karol Grabowski, \u2064a 36-year-old Polish\u200c national, has been charged \u200cfor \u2064his involvement in\u2063 managing LolekHosted. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lolek-bulletproof-hosting-server-seized-for-aiding-ransomware-attacks\/\" title=\"Lolek's 'Bulletproof' Server Seized for Assisting Ransomware Attacks.\">web hosting company allegedly facilitated<\/a> \u2063various\u200b malicious activities, including ransomware attacks,\u2062 brute-force attacks, and phishing. Grabowski faces \u2063charges of computer fraud\u200d conspiracy, \u2064wire fraud conspiracy, \u2062and \u2063international money laundering related to the provision of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/parler-pushes-back-after-apple-blocks-social-media-site-from-app-store\/\" title=\"Parler Pushes Back After Apple Blocks Social Media Site From App Store\">web hosting services<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Related Stories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/opinion\/the-us-governments-new-ministry-of-truth-the-cybersecurity-and-infrastructure-security-agency-5408676\">The \u2062US Government\u2019s \u200dNew \u2018Ministry of Truth\u2019: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency<\/a><br \/>\n      <br \/>\n      <span>7\/19\/2023<\/span>\n    <\/li>\n<li>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/article\/cosmetics-giant-estee-lauder-hacked-disrupting-business-operations-5408058\">Cosmetics\u200d Giant Estee Lauder Hacked, Disrupting \u2064Business Operations<\/a><br \/>\n      <br \/>\n      <span>7\/19\/2023<\/span>\n    <\/li>\n<li>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/bill-slashing-1-billion-from-fbi-budget-advances-in-house-5400195\">Bill to Slash FBI\u2064 Budget by $1 Billion Advances in House<\/a><br \/>\n      <br \/>\n      <span>7\/15\/2023<\/span>\n    <\/li>\n<li>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/epochtv\/ntd-good-morning-july-6-meta-releases-new-app-threads-to-rival-twitter-biden-admin-appeals-injunction-in-censorship-case-5377585\">NTD Good \u2063Morning (July \u200d6): \u200dMeta Releases New App &#8216;Threads&#8217;\u2063 to Rival Twitter; Biden Admin. Appeals Injunction\u2063 in Censorship Case<\/a><br \/>\n      <br \/>\n      <span>7\/6\/2023<\/span>\n    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The indictment against Grabowski\u200d reveals that he registered the domain &#8216;LolekHosted.net&#8217; in 2014 and advertised the services as &#8220;bulletproof,&#8221; \u200doffering &#8220;100% privacy hosting&#8221; and allowing clients to host everything except child pornography.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Grabowski remains at large. The indictment also notifies him that the United States is seeking an order of forfeiture \u200din\u200d the amount of\u200b $21.5 \u2064million, representing the proceeds from the criminal conduct.<\/p>\n<p>Ransomware Attacks and NetWalker Variant<\/p>\n<p>LolekHosted facilitated various ransomware attacks, \u2063including the\u2063 notorious NetWalker ransomware. These attacks targeted 400 company networks,\u2063 including municipalities, hospitals, law enforcement and emergency services, school districts, colleges, and universities. The DOJ reports that these NetWalker\u200d ransomware attacks resulted in the payment of over 5,000\u2063 bitcoins, equivalent to approximately \u200d$146 million.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment states, &#8220;LolekHosted clients used its services to execute approximately 50 NetWalker ransomware attacks on victims\u2062 located all\u200b over \u2063the world, including in the Middle District of \u2064Florida.&#8221; Clients utilized LolekHosted\u2064 servers as intermediaries to \u2063gain unauthorized access to victim networks,\u2064 store hacking tools, and store stolen data.<\/p>\n<p>Europol&#8217;s Involvement and Arrests<\/p>\n<p>Europol, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, announced the arrest of\u200b five LolekHosted administrators in Poland and the seizure of all its servers. Europol supported the complex investigation, which also involved the US Federal\u200c Bureau\u200c of Investigation (FBI). According \u200cto Europol, the investigation revealed how LolekHosted facilitated the distribution of information-stealing \u2063malware, launched DDoS \u2064attacks, operated fictitious online shops, managed botnet servers, and distributed spam messages worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. authorities have seized LolekHosted, a &#8220;bulletproof&#8221; hosting service provider, for aiding ransomware attacks on 400 networks. The Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed the seizure on Aug. 11, following a warrant issued by the District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The server now shows a banner stating the domain name is no longer accessible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":1998764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1998764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}