Most scouted cyber-crime marketplace shut down

One of the world's biggest online marketplaces selling stolen credentials has been shut down following an operation involving a host of law enforcement agencies. Genesis Market was one of the most significant platforms on the criminal market. Its removal will be a huge blow to criminals across the globe.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and European law enforcement agencies have taken down the domains and infrastructure of Genesis Market, one of the world’s most prolific marketplaces for stolen credentials from malware infected computers belonging to consumers and businesses.

Genesis Market was user-friendly, providing users with the ability to search for stolen access credentials based on location and/or account type (e.g., banking, social media, email, etc.). Genesis Market Offered Access to Data Stolen From Over 1.5M Compromised Computers Worldwide and Was a Key Enabler of Ransomware.

Genesis Market traded in digital identities, selling ‘bots’ that contained information harvested from victim devices, which had been infected using malicious attacks. The bots would give criminals access to all the data pertaining to an individual identity, such as cookies, saved logins and autofill form data.

Experts say, "Behind every cyber-criminal or fraudster is the technical infrastructure that provides them with the tools to execute their attacks and the means to benefit financially from their offending. The price per bot would range from as little as $0.70 up to several hundreds of dollars for those containing financial information, which would allow access to online banking accounts.

In addition to access credentials, Genesis Market obtained and sold device “fingerprints,” which are unique combinations of device identifiers and browser cookies that circumvent anti-fraud detection systems used by many websites.

The combination of stolen access credentials, fingerprints, and cookies allowed purchasers to assume the identity of the victim by tricking third party websites into thinking the Genesis Market user was the actual owner of the account.

Sources said that, police have arrested 119 people in 17 countries, with 208 raids worldwide. The U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that 45 of 56 FBI field offices across the country were involved in the operation. Eleven domain names have been shuttered.

A banner across Genesis’ site said domains belonging to the organization had been seized by the FBI. And the shutdown of cybercrime marketplaces is an important step in combating cybercrime and protecting individuals and businesses from the harm caused by such activities.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA