193 Cybercrims Arrested, Accused of Plotting 'Violence-As-a-Service'

Europol's GRIMM taskforce has arrested nearly 200 people accused of running or participating in 'violence-as-a-service' schemes where cybercrime groups recruit youth online for real-world attacks. 'These individuals are groomed or coerced into committing a range of violent crimes, from acts of intimidation and torture to murder,' the European police said on Monday. The Register reports: GRIMM began in April, and includes investigators from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, plus Europol experts and online service providers. During its first six months, police involved in this operation arrested 63 people directly involved in carrying out or planning violent crimes, 40 'enablers' accused of facilitating violence-for-hire services, 84 recruiters, and six 'instigators,' five of whom the cops labeled 'high-value targets.'

Many of the criminals involved in recruiting and carrying out these violence-for-hire services are also members of The Com. This is a loosely knit gang, primarily English speakers, involved in several interconnected networks of hackers, SIM swappers, and extortionists. Their reach has spread across the Atlantic, and over the summer, the FBI warned that a subset of this cybercrime group, called In Real Life (IRL) Com, poses a growing threat to youth. The FBI's security bulletin specifically called out IRL Com subgroups that offer swat-for-hire services, in which hoaxers falsely report shootings at someone's residence or call in bomb threats to trigger massive armed police responses at the victims' homes.

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