Law Enforcement Agencies Shut Down Genesis Market

Uploaded on 2023-04-05 in GOVERNMENT-Law Enforcement, FREE TO VIEW

One of the largest criminal marketplaces which is used by on-line fraudsters has been closed down by law enforcement. An international operation has taken down an important hacker forum and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized Genesis Market, a notorious hacker marketplace used to acquire compromised credentials and digital browser fingerprints.

This FBI action was the result of “Operation Cookie Monster” a reference to the stolen website cookies sold on Genesis Market in huge volumes over the past five years, along with other data needed for logging in to third-party machines. 

In addition to the FBI, the takedown involved law enforcement agencies from the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland and Sweden.

A number of different domain names are tied to Genesis Market, a very active cyber crime store that sold access to passwords and other data stolen from millions of computers infected with malicious software. Genesis Market sold login details, IP addresses and other data some of which often only cost less than a US dollar.

Genesis Market has been working since March 2018 using the marketing slogan “Our store sells bots with logs, cookies, and their real fingerprints,” and it was notable for its user-friendly interface. 

Customers could search for infected systems with a variety of options, including by Internet address or by specific domain names associated with stolen credentials. Genesis criminals were mainly using it for fraud as the hackers could use the data for sale there to deliver ransomware attacks, where hackers use the data to block a legitimate business’s website and data access and demand payment for its release.

Genesis Market had at least 80m sets of victims entre details for sale and it operated on the Open Web as well as the Dark Web.

This law enforcement operation also saw 120 people arrested and 200 searches carried out globally, according to the British National Crime Agency (NCA). NCA officers have arrested 19 suspected users of the site in the UK,  who are being held on suspicion of fraud and computer misuse. And while these arrests take some alleged cyber criminals offline, the acute demand for stolen personal data means that other hackers will take their place.

These arrests won't stop criminal websites from selling bootleg logins and many of Genesis Market's customers will probably just move on to smaller marketplaces. This in, nevertheless, a significant action that could make it harder for attackers to simply buy the login data they need.

Krebs On Security:    BBC:     Endgadget:    Techcrunch:   CNN:      Infosecurity Magazine:

The FBI’s Advice On Ransomware:

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