VexTrio's origins come from two distinct groups: an Italian group we can date back to 2004 and a Russian-speaking Eastern European group. The Italians were quite successful early on, with a dating app that was among the fastest growing on Facebook in 2012. But our guess is that their profits slid in the years that followed. In 2020, there is an merger-acquisition which leaves the Eastern Europeans in charge. They gain the trademarks, knowledge in spam distribution, and who knows what else.

While developers remain in eastern Europe, VexTrio created business headquarters in Lugano, Switzerland. Including the existing AdsPro, which developed the Los Pollos, Taco Loco, and Adtrafico traffic distribution systems (TDS) through their software company HolaCode. (ok it's more complicated than that, but this is the cliffsnotes version). We have identified nearly 100 businesses associated with 8 key figures in many industries, including construction, energy, and advertising.

So in the end, what is VexTrio? It's hard to say. We originally used it to refer to the TDS. Nice clean lines... but now, for us it is all the people and their labyrinth of companies.

We spoke at BlackHat last week so if you have a briefings pass you can listen to that. Otherwise, find our research online and start your own investigation.