The European police office, Europol, announced on Wednesday April 5 the closure of Genesis Market, one of the largest hacker platforms in the world. This platform sold stolen account credentials and had become a reference on the Darknet.
The European police office announced on Wednesday the closure of one of the world’s largest hacker platforms, which has sold millions of stolen account credentials. This global crackdown, which targeted the Genesis Market platform, resulted in 119 arrests and involved more than 17 countries, Europol said in a statement. 208 properties were searched during this “unprecedented” operation carried out by the FBI and the Dutch police and which began in 2019, said Europol.
17 arrests in the Netherlands
24 arrests were made in the UK, according to the British crime agency, and 17 in the Netherlands, Dutch police said. “Genesis Market had put the identities of more than two million people up for sale at the time of its closure,” said the European police office. The platform offered for sale “bots” that infected victims’ devices through malware or other methods.
Actions also took place in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United States and more than 10 countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom. “We have seriously disrupted the cybercriminal ecosystem by removing one of its main catalysts,” said Edvardas Sileris, who heads Europol’s European Cybercrime Center, quoted in the press release.