Lockbit takedown coordinator wins OBE in New Year honours
Gavin Webb was key to taking down world’s most prolific ransomware operator
A senior figure behind the international takedown of the LockBit ransomware gang has been recognised in the King's New Year Honours.
Gavin Webb, a senior officer at the National Crime Agency (NCA), has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his role in Operation Cronos, the multinational effort that disrupted LockBit in 2024.
The award appears in King Charles III's New Year Honours list for 2026.
Mr Webb, 51, acted as the UK lead and strategic coordinator for Operation Cronos, which the NCA spearheaded. The project also involved law-enforcement agencies from several countries.
The operation targeted LockBit, which had established itself as the world's most prolific ransomware-as-a-service platform between 2023 and 2024.
According to the NCA, LockBit was responsible for around a quarter of all ransomware attacks globally during that period.
The group enabled criminals to attack individuals, companies and public entities by providing malicious software and infrastructure, encrypting victims' systems and stealing sensitive data.
The financial toll ran to billions of pounds, as organisations paid ransoms and attempted to restore damaged networks.
But Operation Cronos was successful in dismantling much of LockBit's global infrastructure in early 2024.
Authorities seized 34 servers, more than 1,000 decryption keys, cryptocurrency wallets and the gang's affiliate control panel, weakening its ability to operate.
The operation also exposed the identity of LockBit's alleged leader: Russian national Dmitry Khoroshev.
He had previously offered a $10m reward to anyone who could identify him, believing himself to be untouchable.
The UK, the USA and Australia all sanctioned Khoroshev following the operation.
Despite the technical nature of the takedown, the NCA said Mr Webb's contribution lay in leadership rather than hands-on hacking.
A police officer by training and not a cyber specialist, he did not directly infiltrate LockBit's systems. Instead, he coordinated the complex choreography behind the scenes as investigators turned the gang's own infrastructure against it.
An NCA official described the operation as "tremendously complex,” and said Webb's leadership was instrumental to its success.
His role involved working closely with international partners and domestic forces, ensuring all agencies were aligned, informed and acting in the correct sequence as the operation unfolded.
Webb is currently the NCA's regional head of multi-threat and border investigations. Much of his day-to-day work focuses on firearms, drugs and organised immigration crime, rather than cybercrime.
He was one of eight NCA officers named in the New Year Honours list.
Among them was Kay Taylor, 50, the agency's director of legal services, who was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Ms Taylor was recognised for her role in securing "countless convictions" of serious and organised criminals.
Her work has included supporting the 2020 EncroChat operation, which continues to lead to arrests and prosecutions, and Operation Stovewood, the long-running investigation into child sexual abuse in Rotherham.
Also honoured was Fiona Nicolson, 61, a former team manager at the National Economic Crime Centre, who received an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire).
She was praised as a "trailblazer" for developing innovative methods to identify high-harm financial criminals.
Five other NCA officers were also appointed MBEs, though their identities were withheld because of the sensitive nature of their work.