Darkode Was Finally Taken down by an FBI-Led Task Force

The online cybercriminal community has recently received a heavy blow courtesy of an international task force led by the FBI and Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, whose members managed to take down one of the most infamous English-speaking cybercriminal forums in the world. We’re talking about Darkode, a forum that used to serve as gathering place for a very secretive community of hackers. The community comprised about 250 to 300 members, and new memberships were only awarded by invitation and at the recommendation of a respected forum member. The individuals that were a part of Darkode used the platform to trade various services and goods such as malware and Zero Day Exploits.

Shutting down the forum was done via an international coordinated action that involved the FBI as well as law enforcement officers from about 20 countries, some of which were a part of the European Union while others were not. These countries include Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Denmark, Romania, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, United Kingdom and Sweden.

Rob Wainwright, Europol’s Director, stated the following:

“Today’s global action caused significant disruption to the underground economy, and is a stark reminder that private forums are no sanctuary for criminals and are not beyond the reach of law enforcement. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to make cyberspace as crime-free as possible for the world’s citizens.”

The forum takedown resulted in 37 house searches, 28 arrests and several seizures of computers.

Thank you Europol for providing us with this information.