SINGAPORE – The German authorities were monitoring a ransomware group in 2024 when they realised that the perpetrators were about to encrypt the systems of a company in Singapore.
Instead of relaying the information through official channels, which would have taken much longer, the officers sent a message on WhatsApp to their contacts in the Singapore Police Force.
Within 15 minutes of receiving the text, a group of Singaporean officers contacted the Bavarian officers to discuss the next step and then went to the company’s premises to disrupt the encryption and prevent damage to its servers.
Four Russian nationals were later arrested in Thailand over their involvement in the incident. They were suspected of releasing a ransomware variant to extort high-value payments from victims across Europe and other countries.
Twenty-seven servers linked to the criminal network were also taken down.
Countries including Singapore, Thailand and the UK took part in the investigation.
The incident underscored the importance of international cooperation in disrupting scam syndicates and tackling cross-border crime, which was the theme of a panel discussion on Oct 15 at Singapore International Cyber Week 2026.
“Information and intel sharing sounds highly sophisticated but in many instances, it’s very easy,” said Thomas Goger, deputy director of Germany’s Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of Cybercrime, adding that authorities should be willing to move more quickly.
He was one of the panellists at the session, Disrupting Scam Ecosystems: Multilateral Cooperation Against Cyber-Enabled Organised Crime.
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