PYMNTS Daily Data Dive: Avalanche Costs Pittsburgh Business Big

The U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, along with over 40 international organizations, including Europol and Eurojust, recently dismantled a worldwide network of criminal computer servers called Avalanche.

But before they could, federal prosecutors and FBI agents reported a business in Pittsburgh lost $387,500. Avalanche servers reportedly hosted over two dozen of the most malicious types of malware.

Hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide are estimated to be affected. The criminal servers also hosted a number of money laundering campaigns. Over 50 Avalanche servers have been taken offline thus far. The joint operation is working on seizing, blocking and dismantling more than 800,000 domains associated with the Avalanche network. The operation involves arrests and searches in five as-of-yet-unnamed countries.

Here are the numbers:

40+ | Number of organizations involved in dismantling Avalanche

$387,500 | Amount lost by a Pittsburgh business

24+ | Types of malware Avalanche servers hosted

50+ | Amount of Avalanche servers that have been taken offline so far

800,000+| Number of domains associated with the criminal network

5 | Number of countries, still unnamed, where arrests and searches have been made in connection to Avalanche