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The FBI has made the public aware of Operation Riptide, an ongoing nationwide campaign it started to catch cybercriminals and scatter their activities.
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The agency is going after the infrastructure cybercriminals use, their platforms for communications, their financial networks, and all other services that support their activities.
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The agency says their recent enforcement actions have led them to get search warrants from the court, made some indictments, arrested some criminals, achieved infrastructure takedowns, plus the seizure of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
The FBI has launched a campaign tagged “Operation Riptide“, a coordinated law enforcement campaign designed to bring massive disruptions in cybercriminal operations.
Operation Riptide is not just targeting the threat actors, but it is after all the infrastructure plus services that support them in carrying out evil deeds.
The initiative comes due to the increasing concerns of internet users over cybercrime & online fraud which has become the bane of the space.
Through Operation Riptide, which has started, federal authorities have in mind to dismantle ecosystems belonging to cybercriminals.
They also aim to seize all the illicit proceeds they have made in past attacks, & increase the costs which cybercriminal networks incur in operating their outfits in the United States & abroad.
FBI Launches Operation Riptide Against Cybercrime Networks
The Assistant Director of the FBI Criminal Division, Heith Janke & the Assistant Director of its Cyber Division, Brett Leatherman, made this announcement.
During the announcement, the FBI revealed that Americans sent in over one million cybercrime complaints last year 2025 and they reported losing over $20 billion.
According to the federal agency, the operation will now move beyond catching the regular threat actors targeting and stealing from internet users.
Instead it will focus on criminal services, the technical infrastructure that boosts their work, their hidden communications platforms, the tools they operate with, and all financial networks that help them to steal and move the victims’ money.
From what the FBI Officials said during the announcement, the agency launched Operation Riptide in support of Executive Order 14390 & the administration’s wider cybersecurity strategy.
The campaign involves many of the FBI’s divisions which include its Criminal Division, the Cyber Division, plus all 56 of its field offices, & even their international law enforcement partners.
Arrests, Indictments, and Crypto Seizures Already Underway
Based on the announcement, Operation Riptide has already started bringing in results since the agency launched it.
There have been many enforcement actions in recent weeks and according to the agency, its investigators have carried out some search warrants and secured many indictments too. They have also arrested some suspects, pulled down criminal infrastructure, & even seized.
Criminal partnerships like BreachForums’ alliance with The Gentlemen represent the type of infrastructure that such operations are designed to disrupt.
According to what FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Brett Leatherman said in the video, the aim of this campaign is to apply strong pressure on threat actors over the internet & also put pressure on the services that help them to achieve their goals.
While authorities are yet to reveal the identities of those they arrested or even provide a breakdown of the details of the cryptocurrency seizures, the officials hinted that they expect more enforcement actions as the operation continues to go on.
In its own description, the FBI stated that the recent actions are a part of a wider effort to scatter criminal networks by going after both operators & the systems that help their activities go on successfully.
FBI Urges Victims to Report Cybercrime During Operation Riptide
As part of the announcement, the FBI implored the victims of any fraud that takes place over the internet to report it to them through their local FBI field offices or the broader Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
Officials said that any information victims submit to them can really help the ongoing investigations & enforcement efforts regarding Operation Riptide to be successful.
Heith Janke also revealed in the video that the next 60 days will mark a phase of the campaign with more focus as the FBI works harder to impose costs on malicious cyber actors & hold them accountable.
The agency has not shared any timeline for future enforcement announcements to the public but it indicated that it will continue the criminal investigations, seizures of assets, take-downs of infrastructure, plus international coordination efforts as part of the operation.
