Europol shuts down two major cybercrime forums

Great news that Europol took out two of the biggest cybercrime forums out there. These places are basically hubs for all the shady characters selling their software, including malware that’s been stealing funds and attacking crypto assets. Another one down, and fingers crossed the people running these forums get caught and face some serious time.

Not to sugar coat though, it's there responsibilities to go after this bunch of criminals and if I'm not mistaken, they said that they are going to be more proactive in working with other agencies so that they will be able to cripple this organizations. Based on the article, the leader of the ring is still out and in the open, more work is needed by them to capture their guy as there is a big possibility that they will re-organized with a different name but the mode of attack will be similar. To offer their tools to any individual or groups to used the software to scam.

And they should also monitoring the dark web as well as usually if one or two sites are being taken down. Within a week they could be back or even more related similar sites will spawn just like mushrooms. So it's not just if you seized them right now, there will be gone for good. For sure we have seen that kind of patterns already, as there are new crime groups that are willing to take over from the other groups. This is like a cat and mouse game for the authorities and the criminals. But it's good that we have seen governments around are really cooperating to shut down this criminals syndicate.

According to what I read, after the take down, the admin of cracked posted this message on their telegram channel: “Now that everyone has more clarity on the situation, Cracked.io has been seized under Operation Talent with specific reasons being undisclosed. We are still waiting for the official court documentation from the data centre and the domain host. We will inform you guys further on those details once we have it". So it's looks like he's still at large but the administrator of Nulled has been arrested and could face up to 30 years behind bars if convicted. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/cracked-and-nulled-marketplaces-disrupted-international-cyber-operation

Now that Silk Road Ross has been pardoned by Trumpolini, wanna bet that the same folks that cried about Ross being in prison will have 2 new poster children?

I do not think though that he might be convicted and face up to 20 years in prison. Sometimes justice system really play us bad, just like at SBF sentencing. It might be the challenge for this authorities is how to find the administrator of Nulled as well and bring him to court. He could have escape but his place of movement is getting smaller and smaller everyday. And one mistakes he make, he could really be tracked and capture. You just have to admire this criminals though to even admit it to their Telegram channel. Because as far as we know, cyber criminals try to hide themselves, but maybe they think that they are not doing anything and will defend themselves against this accusations by the nations that work together as a whole to bring Cracked.io.

It is good news that these cybercrime forums have been taken down, €1 million in criminal profits is enough to tell you the huge number of people that have fallen victim to their schemes. I believe countries will collaborate even more this year to take down criminal marketplaces, when they work together the job becomes faster and easier.

First of all why police like interpol always had similiar background when it comes to seize some website hehe. Back in the topic what are two website that been takedown by them i mean is it hacker forum or something like marketplace forum? Well nowadays lot of counties to do such same job to make the job lot easier

I am not implying that this was not a good job, however, this will certainly not stop cybercrime. This will only make the more wiser on their methods on avoiding the government and this will also only cause them to reorganize under a different name. I reckon the best method to avoid cybercrime is for the government to create a cybercrime education program to teach in schools. I am not talking about information only, I am also talking about teaching students these tools in practice also and ways to avoid the attacks from these tools.

They took down two forums where EUR 1 million was gained through illegal activities? Well, that's not worth mentioning in the context of criminal activities that generate billions of EUR in the EU alone every year. I wonder how much money they spent on taking down those forums while at the same time several new ones popped up in the wastelands of the internet.

Great to see that the enforcement agencies are taking actions against cyber criminals. A lot of more to achieve, especially in cryptocurrency area. Billions and billions of dollars are hacked in multiple incidents since last many years and in majority of the cases, no money was recovered. Investors are crying foul and hackers are enjoying their best life possible. That should not be the case in the real world. But I am happy to see some baby steps at least. But as I mentioned, a lot more to achieve to bring back trust. Criminals hiding behind IP addresses need to be brought back under law and behind the bars.

It is a cybercrime forum and also a cybercrime marketplace, the names of these platforms are Cracked and Nulled. In these forums, scammers discuss the latest methods to scam victims, they also sell tools like malware, stolen datas and other illegal stuffs that aid their 'work' of stealing from people.

Yes, and from the name itself, they are also selling everything from stolen data, credit cards and other personal information. And then software as well for those who don't know how to create a hacking tools. So it's a thrive of everything in that two websites that why the authorities need to take them down ASAP to stop them. That's why they really have to work very hard and cooperate with each other. @ bbc.reporter - you are right, just like in IRL crimes, the more you takedown one criminal syndicate, another one pops around to continue or even more sophisticated than the other.

These platforms are just the visible part. The real issue is how these groups adapt and rebuild. While taking down marketplaces disrupts operations temporarily, the core actors usually migrate to new platforms or go deeper underground. IYKYK

That is why the authorities work round the clock to bring down as many of these criminal syndicates as possible, there is nothing the authorities can do rather than going after them and bring them to book. I know some will talk about education as a means to tackle this, but even doing that will not eradicate cybercrime, people are greedy and their greed makes them vulnerable to scammers.

Simply my thoughts. How easy is it to get these guys and seize their dormain. How deep did they go or were they using clear net to do their illicit deals? Atleast, if you are doing something illegal, you should have modalities to shield yourself from government attack.

It's very easy for them to regroup as what we have seen in the past, many of them steam from when one group was dismantled already. Or probably another individual will continue what they have started and just used it's name. Even in real life the same modus or tactics has been used. Maybe they will be in the underground for several months or if they are being captured, maybe a family member will continue what this people have started. So it's true that the authorities will have to work diligently again as what others suggested and be on the watch of new criminals groups with the same modus.

You shouldn't resume dark web as hackers and scammers forums or marketplaces bro, it's sad to hear that from a so called "cryptomaniac" actually. Bitcoin wouldn't exist if darkweb hasn't been created, that's why Ross Ulbricht case was so important for many crypto users along with libertarians. The darkweb allows citizens of many countries to buy things including medications, not allowed or harshly regulated by the antidemocratic governments of their countries.

It does not surprise me, only the more interesting stories make it to the news.  And the name, 'dark web' does not help the case much.  Any thing that promotes full freedom will come with caveats.  Even democracy comes with a few negative bullets. But the dark web is what I have been using for years, for good reasons actually.  And a lot of websites are offering onion links which are just a way to access them through Tor, or the dark web, even safer.  As far as I know, even some of the e-mail providers offer onion links.  A few of the Block Explorer websites too. I do not know much of any current market, I do not know if any legitimate one even exists today.  And while I find Tor a lot of good purposes, finding medication is in my opinion not one.  Would you buy medication off eBay if your country did not sell it but you needed it?  You would be playing with fire every time you are taking a pill.  They may be what you wanted, they may be nothing or they may be even poison or high class drugs.  I would honestly not do it. Even electronics are risky.  You could be getting an electronic device capable of exploding at any time.  Or a device that has been tapped or modified for particular reasons such as spying on you.  It is cool to have a fully free market in existence, but realistically a lot of things can happen and I presume it is WAY more likely that you become a victim if you were purchasing something off the dark web.

Legitimacy comes down to the fact that I demand something they offer, and we both agree on a transaction. Saying that this isn't legitimate is just creating victimless crimes. I don't know why you're talking about medications when what we're really dealing with are drugs. You won't find anticoagulants being sold there for example, what you will find are opioids, benzodiazepines, and other substances. Some of them are the kind you can get at a pharmacy but only with a prescription, and then there are others that you’d typically find on the street, with the same risks as buying street drugs. That said, I'd argue that purchasing pharmaceutical-grade drugs is probably the safest option on those sites.