INTERPOL’s Operation Synergia III Dismantles 45,000 Malicious IPs Across 72 Countries, 94 Arrested

Summary

INTERPOL has announced the results of Operation Synergia III, a massive global cybercrime crackdown that ran from July 2025 through January 2026 across 72 countries and territories. The operation resulted in 94 arrests, the dismantling of over 45,000 malicious IP addresses and servers, and the seizure of 212 electronic devices. An additional 110 suspects remain under investigation.

The operation targeted diverse cybercriminal activities including phishing, malware distribution, ransomware attacks, romance scams, and credit card fraud. In Macau, authorities identified over 33,000 phishing and fraudulent websites impersonating casinos, banks, and government services. In Togo, police arrested 10 suspects running a fraud ring involving social media account hijacking and sextortion. In Bangladesh, 40 suspects were arrested in connection with loan scams, fake job offers, and identity theft.

The operation focused on dismantling malicious infrastructure rather than targeting individual attacks, with private sector partners Group-IB, Trend Micro, and S2W providing critical intelligence and support.

Source

Reported by HackRead, Infosecurity Magazine, and The Register.

Commentary

Operation Synergia III represents exactly the kind of infrastructure-focused approach that makes a lasting dent in cybercrime. Rather than playing whack-a-mole with individual threat actors, this operation targeted the shared infrastructure — the malicious IPs, phishing servers, and C2 nodes — that underpins a wide range of criminal operations. Pulling those foundations out forces criminals to rebuild, which costs time and money.

The geographic breadth is notable: 72 countries cooperating on a single cybercrime operation would have been unthinkable a decade ago. The private sector partnerships with Group-IB, Trend Micro, and S2W also highlight an increasingly mature model where threat intelligence firms provide the targeting data and law enforcement brings the warrants. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s progress.