Ten held for $100m cybertheft spree

BRUSSELS: Ten hackers have been arrested on suspicion of stealing cryptocurrency worth $100 million from celebrities.

By hijacking phone numbers, criminals stole more than $100m in cryptocurrency, the EU agency for law enforcement co-operation added.

According to Europol, the suspects were involved in a series of Sim-swopping attacks targeting highprofile victims in the US.

This type of fraud involves cybercriminals taking over the use of a victim’s phone number by essentially deactivating their SIM card and porting the allocated number over to a SIM card belonging to a member of the criminal network.

The arrests followed a year-long, Europol-co-ordinated international investigation.