- Japan extradited an unnamed suspect, accused Qilin leader, to Germany after his arrest while on holiday, NRW interior minister Herbert Reul said.
- Authorities say Qilin extorted about $2.9 billion from roughly 4,000 companies and institutions worldwide since 2024.
- German police infiltrated Qilin, traced cryptocurrency payments, and linked attacks that hit Asahi deliveries and disrupted over 10,000 NHS appointments.
Japan has extradited one of the suspected leaders of a Russian hacking group that has extorted hundreds of millions of dollars to Germany, officials said Wednesday.
The suspect, who has not been named, was captured while on holiday in Japan, Herbert Reul, interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state, told a press conference.
Reul said the Qilin group, one of the most “aggressive” known, had extorted about $2.9 billion from some 4,000 companies and institutions around the world since 2024.
He added that authorities knew of about 30 companies in NRW who had been involved.
German police infiltrated Qilin and monitored its members over several months, officials said.
Cryptocurrency payments were traced to individuals, the state’s justice minister Benjamin Limbach said.
Last year, shares of Japanese brewer Asahi fell after Qilin staged a cyberattack that disrupted its orders and deliveries.
It has also been blamed for an attack on Britain’s National Health Service that disrupted more than 10,000 medical appointments, according to the BBC.
German authorities say that Russian cyberattacks and espionage operations against Germany have increased since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
