TL;DRDutch financial crime investigators seized 800 servers and arrested two men who allegedly provided hosting infrastructure to the Kremlin-linked hacking group NoName057(16). The servers, operated by WorkTitans and MIRhosting, were linked to sanctions-evading entities controlled by two EU-blacklisted Moldovan brothers.
Dutch financial crime investigators have seized 800 servers and arrested two men in a crackdown on hosting companies that provided infrastructure for Russian state-sponsored cyberattacks across Europe. The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) raided two data centres last week and shut down servers operated by WorkTitans and MIRhosting, two companies suspected of violating EU sanctions by renting server space to entities controlled by sanctioned individuals.
The arrests targeted Youssef Zinad, the 57-year-old owner of WorkTitans, and Andrey Nesterenko, the 39-year-old founder of MIRhosting. Nesterenko, a Russian citizen based in the Netherlands, is a prize-winning concert pianist. He denied wrongdoing in a LinkedIn message, saying he had cut off the relationship with the sanctioned individuals after they were blacklisted and that MIRhosting had not seen anything suspicious originating from its network.
