Genesis Market: Notorious cybercrime website shut in global law enforcement crackdown
Cyber attack
A global law enforcement effort has resulted in the closure of one of the largest online black markets in the world wherein internet fraudsters could purchase other people's credentials.
The "digital fingerprints" of victims, including login information, IP addresses, and other data, were sold by Genesis Market, as reported by the BBC.
The private information, which frequently costs less than $1, allowed thieves to access bank and shopping accounts.
The coordinated raids involved law enforcement organisations from all over the world, including the UK.
24 people who are alleged site users were detained by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) during a series of raids. They include two men, aged 34 and 36, who are being detained in Grimsby, Lincolnshire on suspicion of fraud and misuse of computers.
The raids, which got underway at dawn on Tuesday, included law enforcement agencies from 17 different nations. Together with the NCA in the UK, the Australian Federal Police, and nations throughout Europe, the FBI in the US and the Dutch National Police oversaw the operation.
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120 individuals were detained, and 200 searches were carried out globally. Anyone visiting the Genesis website on Wednesday would have seen a notice that said, "Operation Cookie Monster. This website has been seized."
The NCA referred to Genesis Market as "an enormous enabler of fraud" since it was offering for sale 80 million sets of credentials and digital fingerprints.
"For too long criminals have stolen credentials from innocent members of the public," Robert Jones, director general of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, said
"We now want criminals to be afraid that we have their credentials, and they should be," he added.
Set up in 2017, Genesis marketwas notable for its user-friendly, English-language interface.
For login information, it served as a one-stop shop, facilitating online fraud. Users had the option of purchasing login details, such as passwords, as well as other components of a victim's "digital fingerprint," such as their IP address, location, IP history, cookies, and autofill form data.
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