Two men have been arrested in an investigation into the trafficking of billions of hacked personal data, such as passwords, police said on Friday. A 22-year-old suspect in particular was arrested in the city of Arnhem, in the east of the Netherlands, following anonymous information obtained by a Dutch cybercrime unit working with the British organized crime agency ( NCA), the FBI and the German police.
The two suspects are 22 years old
The man is suspected of being "involved in the possession and sale of hacked usernames and passwords, and has played a facilitative role in the field of cybercrime," police said, adding that a second suspect, also 22, was arrested in Northern Ireland.
During a search in the Netherlands, the police seized material related to the WeLeakInfo.com website. On its home page, we could read this warning on Friday: "this area has been seized" by the FBI, in coordination with other European crime-fighting agencies. According to public television NOS , WeLeakInfo.com offered unlimited access, for a subscription of two dollars per month or 25 dollars per year, to confidential data hacked on very frequented sites, such as LinkedIn or MyFitnessPal.
Recurring flights
"In theory, you could search for hundreds, if not thousands, of hacked passwords to try to access email, active social media accounts, or other accounts," said the public TV. Already in 2018, the Dutch and British police forces had carried out an operation which had led to the closure of a website which was the source of more than four million cyber attacks worldwide.
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- Netherlands
- Cybercriminality
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- Internet
- North Ireland