Cybercrime gets a few punches on the nose
It’s not often that we get to share good news, so we wanted to grab this opportunity and showcase some progress made by law enforcement actions against cybercrime with you.
Europol notified us about the take-down of two of the largest cybercrime forums in the world. With over 10 million users, Nulled and Cracked serviced cybercriminals from all over the world with a quick entry point into the cybercrime scene.
On the forums people not only discussed how to optimize their cybercrime efforts but also provided several cybercrime-as-a-service options, including data, malware, and hacking tools.
Law enforcement agencies not only seized the forums but also managed to take down associated services like the money launderer Sellix and a “bulletproof” hosting service called StarkRDP, which enjoyed heavy promotion on both platforms and operated under the same suspects.
Bulletproof hosting refers to web hosting services that cater specifically to cybercriminals by allowing them to host illegal activities and content. These hosting providers promise anonymity, operate with very few rules, and typically ignore requests from law enforcement to remove harmful or illegal material.
These two forums also offered AI-based tools and scripts to automatically scan for security vulnerabilities and optimize attacks.
This operation was an international effort supported by Europol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) involving law enforcement from Australia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Romania.
In a separate action, Dutch police and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) dismantled an international cybercrime network called HeartSender (aka Saim Raza or The Manipulators). This crime network specializes in developing and selling phishing kits. Their tools to power spam campaigns attracted thousands of customers interested in sending vast amounts of phishing emails, stealing login credentials, and exploiting compromised systems.
Law enforcement seized a total of 39 domains and servers belonging to HeartSender in an international effort. The law enforcement agencies remotely disabled the illegal software sold through these servers. On the servers the police also found datasets including millions of victim records.
But they also found buyer records, which will be subject to a follow-up operation. Operations like HeartSender, Nulled, and Cracked make cybercrime accessible for aspiring criminals that have no working knowledge of programming or other computer skills. As always, we’ll have to wait and see how effective such actions are in the long run. As we all know, these “enablers” have a tendency to grow back in other places, not caring about their customers or their victims, only their Bitcoin wallets matter. But for now, it will take them some time to get back in action—time they can’t spend defrauding innocent victims.
We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity
Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using identity protection.