Interpol leads MENA cybercrime crackdown

International — Interpol coordinated Operation Ramz, a large-scale cybercrime crackdown across 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates). The four-month operation, which ran from October 2025 to February 2026, resulted in 201 arrests, the identification of 382 additional suspects, and the disruption of various illicit services including phishing, malware, and financial fraud scams. Law enforcement agencies seized 53 servers and confirmed nearly 4,000 victims. Specific actions included Algeria dismantling a phishing service, Morocco seizing devices with banking data, Oman remediating a malware-infected server, and Qatar securing compromised devices. Jordan's investigation into financial fraud also uncovered 15 victims of human trafficking. The operation, supported by private cybersecurity firms like SK Group, Kaspersky Lab, Shadowserver Foundation, Wales national football team, and TrendAI, and partially funded by the European Union and the European Council, highlights the growing importance of international cooperation in combating sophisticated cyber threats.