Following a coordinated worldwide police investigation, a VPN service used by criminals to spread ransomware, malware, and facilitate other forms of cybercrime has been knocked offline. The 15 servers used by the VPNLab.net service have been seized or disrupted as part of a combined operation by Europol, Germany's Hanover Police Department, the FBI, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), and others.
According to Europol, VPNLab.net was founded in 2008 and provides services based on OpenVPN technology and 2048-bit encryption to give online anonymity for as little as $60 per year. The service also offered a double VPN, with servers located in a variety of countries. "This made VPNLab.net a popular choice for cybercriminals, who could use its services to carry on committing their crimes without fear of detection by authorities," the agency said.
According to Europol, several investigations have revealed criminals using the VPNLab.net service to enable illegal operations such as virus dissemination. Other incidents demonstrated the service's usage in the setup of infrastructure and communications for ransomware operations, as well as the actual deployment of malware. Cybercriminals also utilized the site to spread malware while evading authorities — but now that the servers have been seized, law enforcement is reviewing customer data in an attempt to identify cybercriminals and victims of cyberattacks.
The vpnlab.net domain presently shows a warning telling visitors that the domain has been seized by legal enforcement. According to the statement, authorities obtained consumer data held on confiscated servers, and an inquiry has been initiated. Europol has not revealed which types of malware and ransomware were distributed using the VPN provider. As a consequence of the investigation, more than 100 organizations have been identified as being vulnerable to cyberattacks, and law enforcement is collaborating with them to mitigate any possible compromise.
"The actions carried out under this investigation make clear that criminals are running out of ways to hide their tracks online," said Edvardas Šileris, head of Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3). "Each investigation we undertake informs the next, and the information gained on potential victims means we may have pre-empted several serious cyberattacks and data breaches," he added.
On January 17, 2022, authorities from Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Latvia, Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom joined forces to disrupt VPNLab, with assistance from Europol.
