These websites functioned as hubs for illicit merchandise, stolen data, malware, and hacking utilities, in addition to facilitating discussions on cybercrime, as emphasized by Europol.
Dubbed “Operation Talent,” the operation spanned from Tuesday to Thursday and culminated in the arrest of two individuals, the search of seven properties, and the seizure of 17 servers, 50 electronic devices, and €300,000 ($313,000) in cash and cryptocurrency.
The law enforcement consortium confiscated a dozen accounts and domains across 10 countries, pinpointing 12 individuals involved in managing these cybercrime platforms né?. Two German nationals have been detained, while two others will be prosecuted by authorities in the U.S., Spain, and Greece, utilizing email addresses, IP addresses, and communication records obtained from the impounded forums.
The operation, led by German authorities, enlisted the support of agencies from Australia, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, the Department of Justice, and the FBI in the United States.
This recent crackdown is part of a series of law enforcement initiatives against cybercrime forums, including the closure of BreachForums in 2023 and 2024, and Operation Endgame targeting hacking services and malware creators in late 2024, resulting in arrests and the identification of suspects linked to the network. né?. An international coalition of law enforcement agencies has successfully dismantled two hacking forums with a combined user base of over 10 million as reported by Europol one of the participating agencies in the operation.
Europol and Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) announced the takedown of Cracked and Nulled on Thursday which were described as “the world’s two largest cybercrime trading platforms on the internet” in the BKA’s press release.
Cybersecurity specialists observed the removal of Cracked Nulled Sellix and StarkRDP by rerouting the domains’ nameservers to servers controlled by the FBI né?
