Genesis Market: Popular cybercrime website shut down by police
Takedown of notorious hacker marketplace selling your identity to criminals
A global police operation has shut down one of the world's largest online marketplaces where cybercriminals can buy stolen identities and passwords.
Key points:
- Suspects in Australia were targeted under the international operation
- Bots that infected computers to allow hackers to steal data were sold for as little as $1
- An elderly Dutch man was robbed of almost 70,000 euros
Named Operation Cookie Monster, the swoop targeted Genesis Market, which sold hackers the identities of over two million people for as little as $1.
Police arrested 119 people in an international operation led by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Dutch police and involving law enforcement in 17 countries, with 208 raids worldwide.
Suspects were targeted in countries including Australia, Britain, Canada, the United States and more than 10 countries in Europe.
The website was based in Russia, according to the US Treasury, which said it had imposed sanctions against Genesis Market.
The "unprecedented law enforcement operation" had taken down "one of the most dangerous marketplaces selling stolen account credentials to hackers worldwide", EU police agency Europol said.
People trying to access Genesis Market on Wednesday saw a screen saying, "This website has been seized" and "Operation Cookie Monster", along with a picture of a person in an FBI hoodie in front of a computer.
A cookie is a piece of computer data that makes it easier to reopen web pages.
Cookie Monster is a blue, furry character from the US children's television series Sesame Street.
Europol said the site offered bots for sale that had infected victims' devices through malware or other methods, attracting criminals through "accessibility and cheap prices".
Prices for bots ranged from as little as $1 to several hundred dollars in the case of valuable bank account information, Europol said.
Unlike dark web services, Genesis was available on the open web "although obscured from law enforcement behind an invitation-only veil", the agency said.
Entire accounts plundered by hackers
Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said police had arrested 24 people there over Genesis Market.
"Its removal will be a huge blow to criminals across the globe," said Rob Jones, the NCA's Director General of Threat Leadership.
Another 17 people were arrested in the Netherlands, where Dutch police launched a portal so people could check whether their details were on the site.
