Last week, the German Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) shut down Crimenetwork – the largest German-language cybercrime marketplace.
Crimenetwork was the DACH region’s largest online criminal hub, facilitating trade in stolen data and illegal services as well as physical objects like drugs. Prosecutors estimate that between 2018 and 2024 the platform enabled transactions in various currencies to the tune of 93 million euros ($98 million) using current exchange rates.
The arrest of their administrator team and shutting down of the site is a major milestone in the ongoing struggle against criminal activity online. The 29-year-old man is being charged with a variety of offenses related to the website’s functioning.
The fight against cybercrime continues
As we have noted on this blog before, cybercrime is a rapidly expanding field and cyberattack rates have been climbing steadily year after year. That being said, attempts continue to block these criminal actions and have seen some major successes recently.
Besides Crimenetwork being shuttered, Europol has announced their successful dismantling of Matrix – a messaging service being used for criminal communications. “The encrypted communication landscape has become more fragmented following the takedown of several services such as Sky ECC, EncroChat, Exclu, and Ghost,” Europol spokespeople have said.
Breaking the criminal communication networks into a larger variety of services comes with both advantages and negatives for security; on the one hand, the fragmentation of the field makes it exponentially more difficult to track illicit activity and easier for cybercrime to fall through the cracks. At the same time, it also interferes with the ability of criminal groups to communicate, organize (for example when trying to set up ransomware-as-a-service relationships) or sell their stolen data.
In conjunction with other law enforcement efforts further afield, these milestones combined with tightening regulations by the EU and other governments stand as evidence of the continuing fight to keep cybercrime down.
Despite these successes, prevention is still key
While increased regulation and law enforcement activity is crucial to fighting against cybercrime, for organizations and businesses the first line of defense is still prevention and having good internal systems and processes to protect themselves.
Of these systems, the backbone of a good disaster recovery plan remains a backup or archive capable of safeguarding your data in the event of a cybersecurity breach, ensuring your continued access to critical internal information.
If you’re interested in how we can make that happen for your organization, contact us and set up your meeting with our team of specialists today.
Your Data In Your Hands – With TECH-ARROW
