Police in the Netherlands arrested 17 people as part of Operation Cookie Monster, an international investigation involving Europol, Dutch police, the FBI in the United States, the UK's National Crime Agency, and investigators in 14 other countries. The investigators focused on taking down the Genesis Market, a marketplace for stolen account credentials, and bots used to obtain data and utilize it in criminal activity. The data belonging to millions of people was traded via the website, including about 50,000 people who live in the Netherlands.
A total of 119 people were arrested around the world, including the 17 suspects in the Netherlands. Investigators searched 208 properties simultaneously, including 23 Dutch locations. More arrests in the Netherlands are likely as police sift through the information collected in the investigation to identify people who used the marketplace to scam people, even if they haven't carried out a crime. Police warned that Genesis Market kept data on its own buyers, despite promises otherwise.
"Genesis Market was considered one of the biggest criminal facilitators, with over 1.5 million bot listings totalling over 2 million identities at the time of its takedown," Europol said in a statement. "With over 1.5 million bots listed on Genesis Market, chances are that your credentials have already ended up for sale on this criminal marketplace."
Those who used the Genesis Market to purchase a bot that had infected a victim's device, either through malware or account takeover tactics, could use it to collect digital fingerprints, cookies, saved logins, and autofill data from forms. The information was gathered in real time, and bot purchasers were notified of password changes as they happened. Bots could be bought for anywhere from USD 0.70 up to hundreds of dollars for bots with access to financial information and online bank accounts.
Many of the 50,000 people in ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
