In its takedown of Genesis Market, a site famous in the cybercriminal realm for selling access to user accounts, the FBI gathered information on possibly tens of thousands of hackers.
Senior FBI and Justice Department officials stated in a Wednesday briefing that law enforcement found and duplicated the backend servers for Genesis Market's main site. These servers store stolen victim passwords and session cookies, as well as information on customers of the infamous hacking site.
According to a US official, the server copies contain information about around 59,000 individual user accounts, including usernames, passwords, email addresses, and secure messenger accounts, as well as a history of user activity.
In connection with the site's closure, the FBI and its partners have already made 119 arrests, including 24 in the United Kingdom. However, the information obtained from the server seizures could assist law enforcement in apprehending even more criminals.
The Justice Department admits that some of the apprehended suspects are US citizens, but it is unable to provide a precise figure. US officials are also reluctant to clarify whether any Genesis Market leaders had been arrested. The Treasury Department, on the other hand, stated that the hacker site "is believed to be located in Russia," a country that has traditionally refused to extradite criminal suspects to the United States.
As a result, the primary operators of Genesis Market are likely to have escaped arrest and will attempt to resume their operations. The FBI has taken down the marketplace's primary domain. The dark web onion site for Genesis, on the other hand, is still active.
For the time being, US officials have only stated that they are focusing on capturing the site's leaders and putting pressure on the cybercriminal globe. The takedown comes just weeks after authorities shut down another prominent hacker forum, BreachForums. In doing so, the FBI said that it had gotten a backend database for BreachForums, which is likely to contain information on several hackers.
“Each takedown is yet another blow to the cybercrime ecosystem,” US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in today’s announcement.
