Europe 1 with AFP 15:58 pm, April 05, 2023
The European police office, Europol, announced on Wednesday 5 April the closure of Genesis Market, one of the largest hacker platforms in the world. This platform sold stolen account credentials and it had become a reference on the Darknet.The European police office announced Wednesday the closure of one of the largest hacker platforms in the world, which sold millions of stolen account credentials. The 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 the "unprecedented" operation carried out by the FBI and Dutch police and which began in 2019, Europol said.
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17 arrests in the Netherlands
24 arrests were made in the United Kingdom, according to the British crime agency, and 17 in the Netherlands, Dutch police said. "Genesis Market had put up for sale the identities of more than two million people at the time of its closure," the European police office said. The platform offered for sale "bots" that infected victims' devices through malware or other methods.
Actions have also taken 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 enablers," said Edvardas Sileris, head of Europol's European Cybercrime Centre.