An unprecedented law enforcement operation involving 17 countries has resulted in the takedown of Genesis Market, one of the most dangerous marketplaces selling stolen account credentials to hackers worldwide. As a result of an action day on April 4, this illegal service was shut down and its infrastructure seized.
Simultaneous actions were also carried out across the globe against the users of this platform, resulting in 119 arrests, 208 property searches and 97 knock and talk measures.
This international sweep was led by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Dutch National Police (Politie), with a command post set up at Europol’s headquarters on the action day to coordinate the different enforcement measures being carried out across the globe.
Genesis Market was considered one of the biggest criminal facilitators, with over 1.5 million bot listings totalling over 2 million identities at the time of its takedown.
John Fokker, Head of Threat Intelligence, Trellix Advanced Research Center, commented: “This global takedown of the largest online cybercriminal marketplace of its kind will have a notable impact on the activities of cybercriminals focused on stolen credential usage for the rest of the year. The Genesis Market lowered the barrier to entry for many cybercriminals and allowed others to scale their operations quickly and execute focused attacks for quick financial gains. Not even counting the arrests of Genesis Market users, simply the loss of this platform will slow down many cybercriminal activities.”
