Europol shuts down two cybercrime forums with 10 million users
Europol has shut down two cybercrime forums under the direction of German authorities. They are said to have had a total of 10 million users.
(Image: Europol)
Europol has taken two of the largest cybercrime forums offline under the leadership of German authorities. Law enforcement officers from eight countries were involved in taking down the platforms, which together have more than ten million users.
The forums currently display a badge with the logos of the authorities involved indicating that the website has been confiscated. As Europol explains in the statement, the criminal forums in question are "Cracked.io" and "Nulled.to". They offered a quick entry point into the cybercrime scene. The sites were central contact points and not only served as a place for cybercriminals to discuss, but also as marketplaces for illegal goods and cybercrime-as-a-service, such as stolen data, malware or hacking tools, explains Europol.
Arrests and seizures
The operation ran from Tuesday, January 28 until today, Thursday. It resulted in two arrests of suspects, seven searches of properties and the seizure of 17 servers, 50 electronic devices and around 300,000 euros in cash and cryptocurrencies.
Videos by heise
Investigators also seized twelve domains belonging to Cracked and Nulled. They also shut down other related servers. These include a financial processor called "Sellix", which was used on the Cracked platform. The same happened to a hosting service called "StarkRDP", which was advertised on both platforms and operated by the same suspects.
Cybercrime-as-a-Service, such as on the two decommissioned platforms, is a growing trend, explain the officials. Criminals offer tools and infrastructure as a service, which even less technically skilled people can use to carry out attacks. Cracked and Nulled also offered AI-based tools and scripts that scan targets for vulnerabilities and optimize attacks. Advanced phishing techniques are also often developed and shared on such platforms, sometimes using AI to create personalized and persuasive messages. As cybercrime becomes more aggressive, Europol wants to step up the fight against this type of crime by bringing together relevant partners for cross-border cooperation and united action.
Europol has also posted a video of the operation on YouTube.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externes YouTube-Video (Google Ireland Limited) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (Google Ireland Limited) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
The Federal Criminal Police Office and the Public Prosecutor General's Office in Frankfurt am Main – ZIT were among those involved in the operation. Internationally, the Australian Federal Police, the French Anti-Cybercrime Bureau, the Greek police, the Italian National Police, the Inspector General of the Romanian Police, the Spanish Citizen Guard and National Police as well as the US Department of Justice and the FBI were also involved.
(dmk)
