A massive cyber attack network, estimated to be worth millions of dollars per year, has been bilking people through fraudulent gambling websites for 14 years. Researchers say the operation is likely a dual effort by a nation-state-sponsored group targeting government and private-industry organizations in the US and Europe.
The attackers primarily target Indonesian-speaking visitors, as Indonesian law prohibits gambling. The majority of the attacker-owned domains are hosted on Cloudflare, while hijacked subdomains are hosted on Amazon Web Services, Azure, and GitHub.
What’s surprising is that this cyber attack network is much larger and more complex than previously known. It serves not only financially motivated scams but also nation-state hackers targeting various organizations across multiple sectors. The enormous infrastructure costs an estimated $725,000 to $17 million per year to fund, suggesting a highly sophisticated and ongoing operation.
Researchers believe the complexity of this network and its longevity hint at a more sinister purpose beyond mere financial gain.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/12/fraudulent-gambling-network-may-be-a-nation-state-spying-operation