International police operation targets dark web market – 05/04/2023 – Tech

International law enforcement agencies have seized a large dark web marketplace popular with cybercriminals, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday, in a multinational operation dubbed “Operation Cookie”. Monster”.

A banner posted on the Genesis Market website on Tuesday night said that domains belonging to the organization had been seized by the FBI. Logos of other European, Canadian and Australian law enforcement organizations were also emblazoned on the site, along with that of cybersecurity firm Qintel.

“We assess Genesis to be one of the most significant access marketplaces in the world,” said Rob Jones, General Manager of Threat Leadership at NCA.

The NCA estimates that the service hosted around 80 million stolen credentials and fingerprints from more than 2 million people.

US Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement that many of the platform’s users were arrested on Tuesday. The investigation into Genesis is still ongoing.

The US Treasury Department, in a statement announcing market sanctions, called it “one of the most prominent brokers of stolen credentials and other sensitive information.”

British authorities said 17 countries were involved in the operation, led by the FBI and the Dutch National Police, which resulted in around 120 arrests, more than 200 searches and nearly 100 measures of “preventive activity”.

Qintel did not immediately return messages seeking comment, and Reuters could not immediately locate contact details for the managers of Genesis Market, which the US Treasury said it believes operates out of Russia.

Genesis specializes in selling digital products, especially “browser fingerprints” collected from computers infected with malicious software, said Louise Ferrett, an analyst at British cybersecurity firm Searchlight Cyber.

Because these fingerprints often include credentials, cookies, internet protocol addresses and other browser or operating system details, they can be used by criminals to bypass anti-fraud solutions such as multi-factor authentication or device fingerprinting, she said.

The site has been active since 2018.

The NCA said countries involved in the investigation include Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Iceland, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.