Operation Tovar

Operation Tovar
Operation nameOperation Tovar
Roster
Executed byU.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.K. National Crime Agency
Countries participatingUnited States, United Kingdom, South African Police Service, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Italy, and France
No. of countries participating13
Mission
TargetGameover ZeuS botnet
Methodundisclosed
Timeline
Date beginBefore June 2014
Results
Arrests2+

Operation Tovar was an international collaborative operation carried out by law enforcement agencies from multiple countries against the Gameover ZeuS botnet, which was believed by the investigators to have been used in bank fraud and the distribution of the CryptoLocker ransomware.

In early June 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Operation Tovar had temporarily succeeded in cutting communication between Gameover ZeuS and its command-and-control servers.

The criminals attempted to send a copy of their database to a safe location, but it was intercepted by agencies already in control of part of the network.