Delta police constable working with European police on international cybercrime case

A Metro Vancouver police officer is headed to Europe to join authorities there in investigating an international cybercrime group believed to have stolen millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.

A Metro Vancouver police officer is headed to Europe to join authorities there in investigating an international cybercrime group believed to have stolen millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.

Delta police Const. Dustin Classen will be travelling to The Hague, Netherlands, to meet with Europol investigators, the Delta Police Department said in a news release last week.

Classen is a member of the DPD's cybercrimes team, and his involvement in the international investigation stems from a local case he worked on, according to the DPD.

Earlier this year, a "mid-sized Delta business" had its computer network compromised, likely through known vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange Server system, police said. Months later, they said, the company's network was encrypted and it received a ransom demand.

“Microsoft issued patches in March, but this served to put cybercriminals on notice,” Classen said in the DPD release.

“Unpatched servers remain vulnerable to unauthorized access; once access is gained, cybercriminals can install further malicious software to maintain access, copy intellectual property and in ransomware attacks, encrypt the network, making it inaccessible to the victim company unless a ransom is paid.”

In this case, the Delta company was able to restore its network from backups, police said. The company also provided copies of the malware and other data to investigators, which Classen shared with other law enforcement agencies dealing with cybercrime.