'Cracked' and 'Nulled' Crime Forums,Closed Down In European Cyber Bust
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Law enforcement officers across Europe assembled again to collectively disrupt major facilitators of cybercrime, with at least one of those cuffed apparently a fan of the dramedy series The Gilmore Girls.
Two crime forums, Cracked and Nulled, were pulled offline.
Together, the platforms amassed more than 9 million users and were often budding e-miscreants' first foray into pursuing a life of cybercrime.
Similar to BreachForums, which was briefly taken down by law enforcement last year, Cracked and Nulled offered users a platform to discuss all things devious and a marketplace to sell their tools and ill-gotten wares.
The collective takedown action was led by German authorities in a campaign dubbed Operation Talent and took place between January 28-30.
It led to two arrests following the search of seven properties. Law enforcement seized 17 servers, 12 domains, 50 devices, and around 300,000 ($311,279) worth of cash and cryptocurrency tokens. Given that Cracked and Nulled generated millions in revenue, the amount seized is just a fraction - but still a notable disruption to their operations.
Lucas Sohn, a 29-year-old Argentine, was the only named suspect. A video released by Europol showed Sohn, who resides in Spain, being arrested and his devices combed through by the Guardia Civil. The video also showed the arrest of a second, unnamed individual.
[...] The Justice Department said Cracked had been on the scene since 2018 and raked in $4 million in the process. Its primary offering was a marketplace that offered access to stolen credentials, hacking tools, and servers to host malware and stolen data.
[...] Meanwhile, in a separate crackdown, the US and Dutch Politie jointly announced the disruption of a Pakistan-based fraud network.
The network was comprised of websites devoted to selling products like phishing kits, which were later used to carry out Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes - the most economically damaging cybercrime in the US, the FBI reckons.
Run by a group known as Saim Raza, aka HeartSender, a total of 39 domains and their associated servers were seized by the US and Netherlands.
Authorities didn't specify victim numbers, only that 'numerous' US-based cases resulted in over $3 million in losses.
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