this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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Police boast of hacking VPN where criminals "believed themselves to be safe" (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 day ago by FTonsilStones@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
33 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Law enforcement intercepted VPN traffic, seized domains, and arrested its operator.

Europol announced yesterday the results of the operation against the service, First VPN. The First VPN website now displays a message saying the domain was seized by a joint international law enforcement action.

“A VPN service used by cybercriminals to conceal ransomware attacks, data theft, and other serious offenses has been dismantled in an international operation led by France and the Netherlands, with support from Europol and Eurojust,” the agency said. “For years, the service, known as ‘First VPN,’ was promoted on Russian-speaking cybercrime forums as a trusted tool for remaining beyond the reach of law enforcement. It offered users anonymous payments, hidden infrastructure, and services designed specifically for criminal use.”

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[–] SpaceMan9000@lemmy.world 26 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Read the article first. They exclusively tailored to criminals on cybercrime forums. If they were shutting down all VPNs which were used by criminals then they would have gone after all.

While performing incident response engagements I've seen a lot of criminals using Proton and others, due to them not being purposely designed for criminals they get away with it.

It's just like when they shut down RedVDS in January.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

What's the difference between a VPN that ensures privacy and a VPN "tailored to criminals"?

[–] stankmut@lemmy.world 20 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Running ads on cybercrime forums and having your marketing language say that you won't comply with the judiciary.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Are either of those things illegal?