Law enforcement shuts down VPN service used by two dozen ransomware gangs
Key takeaways
- An international coalition of law enforcement agencies announced Thursday that they took down a popular virtual private network service used by cybercriminals and arrested its administrator.
- The FBI said in an alert that First VPN was so popular that “at least 25 ransomware gangs used the service to hide their malicious activity.
- Europol said in an announcement that, apart from offering anonymous connections, First VPN offered cybercriminals anonymous payments, hidden infrastructure, and other services specifically marketed for criminal hackers.
An international coalition of law enforcement agencies announced Thursday that they took down a popular virtual private network service used by cybercriminals and arrested its administrator.
The FBI said in an alert that First VPN was so popular that “at least 25 ransomware gangs used the service to hide their malicious activity. Cybercriminals also relied on the VPN to scan the internet, run botnets, launch distributed denial-of-service attacks, and for running scams. First VPN operated servers across 27 different countries, according to the bureau.
Europol said in an announcement that, apart from offering anonymous connections, First VPN offered cybercriminals anonymous payments, hidden infrastructure, and other services specifically marketed for criminal hackers.