Australians arrested in global phishing network sting

Five Australians have been arrested as part of a global sting operation into a “one-stop shop” for cyber criminals seeking to steal personal data.

Federal police made the arrests as part of a take down of the platform LabHost, which allows for cyber criminals to impersonate websites as part of phishing scams.

The personal details of 94,000 Australians have been stolen through LabHost, which has been used by criminals to impersonate 170 websites, including banks and government websites such as MyGov.

A Melbourne man and an Adelaide man were arrested during police search warrants carried out on Wednesday, with police alleging the pair used LabHost.

A further three people were arrested in Melbourne for drug-related offences during the searches.

AFP acting assistant commissioner for cyber command Chris Goldsmid said investigations into the Australian arm of LabHost had been under way since October.

“What was really insidious about LabHost is it was a one-stop shop for phishing,” he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

“LabHost provided cyber criminals with all the tools they needed to undertake phishing attacks, including the infrastructure to host a phishing website.”

Criminals could sign up to the service for as little as $270 to obtain information such as log-ins and passwords to steal money from victims.

The arrests were made as part of a global operation into LabHost, led by police in the United Kingdom, that saw officers from 19 countries carry out search warrants.

Overall, 37 people were arrested as part of the investigation.

“This is a significant disruption of the LabHost infrastructure and criminals’ ability to operate using this service,” Mr Goldsmid said.

“Global activity will continue over the coming weeks and months and further arrests are expected.”