Law enforcement authorities have shut down in an international partnership, VPN services that provided safe havens to cybercriminals. These VPN services were used to conduct ransomware, web attacks skimming, spear phishing and account theft.
The virtual private network Safe-Inet (VPN), used by criminals from all over the world, was shut down on December 21, 2020, in a coordinated law enforcement operation led by the German Reutlingen police together with the Europol but also law enforcement services from around the world. Europol issued the announcement for seizure. Today the closed domains display the following message
The Safe-net service was terminated and its infrastructure seized in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the France και τις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες. Τα τρία domain που κατασχέθηκαν είναι τα insorg.org, safe-inet.com και safe-inet.net. Οι διακομιστές σταμάτησαν να λειτουργούν και η αρχική σελίδα που φαίνεται παραπάνω (δημιουργήθηκε από την Europol), εμφανίστηκε online immediately after the seizure of the domains.
The Safe-Inet domain has been active for over a decade and has been used by some of the biggest cyber criminals, such as ransomware gangs, e-skimming and more.
Administrators were selling the VPN service to cybercriminals as one of the best available if one wanted to avoid detection by the authorities.
The prices were very high because the service offered up to 5 levels of anonymous VPN connections.
Authorities were able to identify around 250 companies worldwide that criminals were spying on using this VPN. These companies were warned of impending ransomware attacks on their systems so they could take the necessary measures protections.
The following is a list of law enforcement agencies involved:
Germany: Reutlingen Police Headquarters
Netherlands: National Police
Switzerland: Canton Police (Kantonspolizei Aargau)
United States: Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI
France: Centrale de la Police Judiciaire
Europol: European Cybercrime Center (EC3)
