The international police took down the “most dangerous marketplace,” which used to sell “stolen account credentials” to hackers worldwide, Europol said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the law enforcement agency carrying out the operation, involving 17 countries, shut down the Genesis Market and seized its infrastructure. This international sweep was led by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Dutch National Police (Politie), with a command post set up at Europol’s headquarters on the action day to coordinate the different enforcement measures being carried out across the globe.
According to the statement, simultaneous actions were also carried out across the globe against the users of this platform, leading to the arrest of 119 people, the confiscation of 208 properties, and the implementation of 97 knock-and-talk measures.
According to Europol’s statement, “Genesis Market was considered one of the biggest criminal facilitators, with over 1.5 million bot listings totaling over 2 million identities at the time of its takedown.”
“Genesis Market’s main criminal commodity was digital identities. This marketplace would offer for sale what the market owners referred to as ‘bots’ that had infected victims’ devices through malware or account takeover attacks,” the statement read.