Law enforcement agencies shut down VPN service used by cybercriminals

A coalition of international law enforcement agencies announced the shutdown of First VPN, a service popular among cybercriminals for concealing illegal activities, and the arrest of its administrator. According to the FBI, the service was so popular that at least 25 ransomware groups used it to cover their tracks. This is reported by Techcrunch.com reports.

Cybercriminals used First VPN not only to ensure anonymity but also relied on its infrastructure for internet scanning, botnet management, DDoS attacks, and various fraud schemes. The service had servers in 27 countries and offered special anonymous payment systems for criminals.

Europol stated that First VPN was deeply embedded in the cybercrime ecosystem. In recent years, the service's name has appeared in almost every major cybercrime investigation supported by Europol. It was primarily advertised on Russian-language forums, promising users that no logs would be kept and that identification was impossible.

However, investigators managed to seize the service's user database. As a result, thousands of users involved in the cybercrime world were exposed. The large-scale operation, which began in December 2021, resulted in the seizure of dozens of servers and the dismantling of the entire infrastructure.