Jan. 30 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday said it has worked with international law enforcement take down alleged cybercrime marketplaces Cracked and Nulled. The enforcement action was dubbed Operation Talent.
The DOJ seized the marketplaces, replacing their content with an Operation Talent banner that read, “This website has been seized.”
According to the DOJ, citing unsealed seizure warrants, the Cracked marketplace has allegedly been “selling stolen login credentials, hacking tools, and servers for hosting malware and stolen data — as well as other tools for carrying out cybercrime and fraud — since march 2018.
The DOJ said Cracked had more than four million users and listed more than 28 million posts that advertised cybercrime tools, as well as stolen information affecting at least 17 million victims in the United States.
Cracked offered access to “billions of leaked websites”, according to the DOJ.
The DOJ said one victim of Cracked was a Western New York woman. Her stolen information was used for sextortion against her and cyberstalking.
The Nulled marketplace was also taken down. The DOJ said it had been selling stolen login credentials, login documents and offered hacking tools.
Charges were filed against Lucas Sohn, 29, one of the alleged administrators of Nulled. The DOJ said he is an Argentinian national living in Spain.
The DOJ said Sohn was charged with “conspiracy to traffic in passwords and similar information through which computers may be accessed without authorization; conspiracy to solicit another person for the purpose of offering an access device or selling information regarding an access device; and conspiracy to possess, transfer, or use a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit or to aid and abet or in connection with any unlawful activity that is a violation of federal law.”
The Nulled site had over 5 million users and allegedly sold hacking tools and personal data since 2016, including names and Social Security numbers of 500,000 Americans.
DOJ said the FBI, working in coordination with foreign law enforcement partners, also seized a series of servers and eight domain names used by Cracked. Law enforcement also seized servers and domain names for Cracked’s payment processor Sellix.
U.S. law enforcement worked with authorities in Romania, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Greece to take down the alleged cybercrime marketplaces.