Half a dozen individuals alleged to be a part of an international cybercrime syndicate — including five Chinese nationals and a Singaporean — have been apprehended by the Singapore Police Force as part of a sweeping crackdown operation earlier this week, according to The Cyber Express.
Most significant among the arrests was of a 42-year-old Chinese national, who had credentials to prolific hacking operations' access services and $850,000 in cryptocurrency assets in addition to laptops and mobile devices. Other Chinese nationals apprehended were a 38-year-old found to have laptops with personally identifiable information and other sensitive data stolen from foreign organizations; another 38-year-old believed to have engaged in stolen data acquisition; a 35-year-old with a laptop having hacking tools that target known software vulnerabilities; and a 32-year-old with software that facilitated operations of the PlugX remote access trojan, which has been leveraged by nearly 40 Chinese threat groups in cyberespionage operations. Meanwhile, the arrested 34-year-old Singaporean was suspected to have been involved in cyberattacks against Singapore.