In a significant blow to cybercrime, the US Justice Department announced its participation in an international operation that has successfully dismantled the notorious online marketplaces known as ‘Cracked’ and ‘Nulled’. These platforms, which facilitated the sale of stolen data and hacking tools, have been taken down, marking a major victory in the fight against cybercrime.
The operation, dubbed “Operation Talent,” was a collaborative effort that took place from January 28, 2025 to January 30, 2025 involving law enforcement agencies from the United States, Romania, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Greece. The U.S. Department of Justice, along with the FBI’s Cyber Division and several U.S. Attorney’s Offices, played pivotal roles in this crackdown.
According to Europol, “These sites worked as one-stop shops and were used not only for discussions on cybercrime but also as marketplaces for illegal goods and cybercrime-as-a-service, such as stolen data, malware or hacking tools. Investigators estimate that suspects earned EUR 1 million in criminal profits.”
To mitigate the impact of these cybercrime marketplaces, authorities seized multiple servers and domain names associated with Cracked and Nulled. This included the infrastructure used for their payment processor, Sellix, and related bulletproof hosting services. The coordinated effort aimed to disrupt the proliferation of cybercrime tools and protect millions of potential victims from further exploitation. The seizure banners now displayed on these domains serve as a stark warning to cybercriminals about the reach and effectiveness of international law enforcement cooperation.
#CyTech #CyTechNewsRoom #Cybersecurity #CISO #CISOWorkplace #ThreatIntelligence #CIM #Cybercrime #FBI #Europol #OperationTalent #CrackedAndNulled
Leave a Reply