A major operation took place in Canada, the United States and a dozen European countries, including the United Kingdom, against Genesis Market, the hacker supermarket specializing in the resale of personal data. This led to the arrest of 119 people and the closure of this platform.
On Wednesday April 5, 2023, the European Police Office (Europol) announced the closure of one of the largest hacking platforms in the world. Genesis Market is considered one of the most dangerous marketplaces and has sold millions of stolen credentials to hackers around the world.
“Genesis Market had the identities of over two million people for sale at the time it closed”underlined the European Police Authority.
The FBI launched an attack on Genesis Market
Backed by law enforcement agencies from 17 countries, including France, on April 5, 2023, the FBI conducted “ an unprecedented operation against Genesis Market. Dubbed the “Cookie Monster,” this operation resulted in the arrest of 119 people, 208 searches, and 97 arrests, and also made it possible to get their hands on servers.
“We seriously disrupted the cybercriminal ecosystem by removing one of its key drivers.”, welcomed Edvardas Sileris, who heads the European Cybercrime Center at Europol. The platform has been active since 2017. She offered for sale “Bot”
At the time of purchasing such a ‘bot’, the criminals had access to all data collected from it such as fingerprints, cookies, saved logins and autofill form data..
Europol thinks he is “It’s likely that your credentials have already been put up for sale on this marketplace.”. In order to check whether your information has been compromised, the European Criminal Police Office points out that the Dutch police have set up a portal for this purpose. All you have to do is enter your email address and in the event that it is a leak, you will receive a message at the address provided.
Genesis Market: an easily accessible platform
Unlike “dark web” services, Genesis Market was easily accessible via the Internet. However, according to Europol, law enforcement could not sneak up on it because it is only accessible by invitation.
Its accessibility and affordable prices have significantly lowered the entry barrier for buyers, making it a popular resource among hackers.
This Europol operation against cybercrime is not the first. In fact, Europol managed to dismantle it in April 2022 « raid forums » and in 2021 the European Criminal Police Force hunted down “EMOTET”, the most dangerous malware on the internet.
