International law enforcement agencies led by Europol have concluded a large-scale operation against the First VPN service, which was popular among cybercriminals. As part of Operation Saffron, 33 servers located in 27 countries were seized. According to investigators, this service acted as a platform for concealing illegal activities. This is reported by Ixbt.com reports .
The operation involved law enforcement agencies from 18 countries, including France, the UK, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Key domains of the First VPN network, such as 1vpns.com, 1vpns.net, 1vpns.org, and its .onion address on the Tor network, were blocked. Currently, visiting these sites displays a special notice from law enforcement authorities.
First VPN marketed itself as an anonymous service that does not adhere to any jurisdiction and does not cooperate with authorities. The platform was actively promoted, especially on Russian-language cybercrime forums. Europol noted that the service was used in many major cyberattacks in recent years, and it took nearly five years to expose it.
Experts emphasize the need to distinguish such "bulletproof" VPN services from legitimate providers. Regular VPN companies operate within the law and respond to official requests, while bulletproof services deliberately ignore violations and complaints, serving only the "shadow" market.
Against the backdrop of this operation, debates over digital privacy boundaries in Europe have intensified. On one hand, the right to confidentiality on the internet is enshrined in EU law, but on the other, concerns are being raised that anti-cybercrime measures could lead to increased internet surveillance.
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