Darkode crime forum shut down in international sting

The notorious Darkode.me hacking exploit website has been closed down and seized by the authorities.

The UK National Crime Agency (NCA) helped in the international operation, alongside organisations including Europol and the FBI, and Darkode.me now displays a seizure notification.

The international operation involved almost 20 agencies, including the Australian and Brazilian federal police forces, along with representatives from agencies in Romania, Sweden and India. 

The NCA said that 28 arrests were made in various countries as part of the operation to take down the site where hacking goods and services were traded.

The NCA confirmed that it has taken down the invitation-only English language malware marketplace.

Europol added that it should serve as a warning to the malware market and its participants.

"Today's global action caused significant disruption to the underground economy, and is a stark reminder that private forums are no sanctuary for criminals and are not beyond the reach of law enforcement," said Europol director Rob Wainwright.

"We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to make cyber space as crime-free as possible for the world's citizens."

Various criminal enterprises, including hackers, credit card thieves, and botnet and denial-of-service operators, will have had their work limited in the action. Europol said that Darkode had some 300 active users.

The takedown is one of the latest international efforts with involvement from Europol, which recently helped to shut a criminal network that offered crime for hire services based on 21,000 compromised company servers.

Europol said then that cooperation is vital in such efforts, including the recent closure of a financial fraud operation.

"This successful operation shows the importance of international law enforcement working together with private industry to fight the global threat of cybercrime," said Europol deputy director of operations Wil van Gemert.

"We will continue our efforts to take down botnets and disrupt the core infrastructures used by cyber criminals to carry out a variety of crimes."

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• Topics
• Security
• Internet
• Hacking
• malware