The FBI shut down the notorious Genesis Market, a hacker marketplace for the illegal acquisition of links and passwords.
In a major victory for US law enforcement, the notorious hacker marketplace Genesis Market has been successfully shut down and its digital assets seized by authorities. This malicious platform was used to obtain stolen credentials as well as illicit browser fingerprints.
The FBI has not yet officially announced the shutdown of Genesis Market, however users will now find a warning message on all related domains that US law enforcement authorities have issued and executed a seizure warrant from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
In collaboration with the FBI, this operation involved law enforcement agencies from the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland and Sweden.
On Wednesday, the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom announced that as a result of its operation 120 people were arrested and 200 investigations were carried out worldwide. Only in the United Kingdom 19 suspect users were arrested, including two men aged 34 and 36, who are being held as suspects for fraud and computer misuse offences.
To ensure the safety of internet users, the FBI provided Have I Been Pwned with a staggering “millions” of email addresses and passwords from Genesis Market. People can use the site to check if their information has been compromised in any way.
Genesis Market has been operating since 2017 as an invite-only online marketplace that sells stolen credentials, cookies, and digital browser fingerprints collected from compromised systems. These fingerprints, which included IP addresses, session cookies, add-ons, and operating system details, allowed attackers to impersonate victims’ browsers to access their online banking and subscription services, such as Amazon and Netflix, without needing the victim’s password or two-factor token.
A recent report revealed that the now-defunct Genesis Market was linked to countless cybercrime groups worldwide.
The shutdown of Genesis Market comes just weeks after the FBI gained access to the notorious hacking forum BreachForums and arrested a 20-year-old man from New York accused of running the site.
Source of information: echcrunch.com
