In recent years, the scale of cybercrime has expanded rapidly. Previous estimates indicated that by 2025, global losses due to cybercrime will reach $10.5 trillion.
According to a report by foreign media outlet Tom’s Hardware, the US Department of Justice and Europol recently conducted a joint operation to shut down the hacker forum LeakBase, which operated across 14 countries. The report stated that the website was one of the world’s largest hacker forums.
Official reports indicate that law enforcement seized account data from 142,000 users, totaling 215,000 posts, credit information, private messages, and IP records. LeakBase is reportedly a public English forum, making it highly attractive for the trading of cybercrime tools and stolen accounts.
The website has now been shut down. The operation, conducted from March 3rd to 4th, was coordinated by Europol at its headquarters in The Hague. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that LeakBase stored data obtained from multiple major cyberattacks, including hundreds of millions of account credentials. Law enforcement also seized credit and debit card numbers, bank account and routing information, as well as a large amount of sensitive business data and personally identifiable information.
The operation was conducted not only online but also included arrests, home searches, and “door-knocking talks.” Law enforcement agencies carried out 100 operations, targeting 37 of the forum’s most active users. Participating countries included the United States, eight member states of Europol, as well as Australia, Canada, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and Kosovo.
