How police in Canada helped the FBI in crackdown on the stolen data market | 24CA News
A large on-line market promoting packaged and stolen information is now not working after a global four-year investigation dubbed Operation Cookie Monster culminated in a coordinated day of motion this week.
Across the globe, search warrants have been executed, units have been seized and stop and desist communications have been issued on Tuesday, together with at three areas in Ontario, two within the Greater Toronto Area and one in London.
“Investigators seized electronic devices during those search warrants and those will undergo a detailed analysis,” Ontario Provincial Police spokesperson Bill Dickson stated.
“We cannot speculate on what charges might be laid. That will rely on the outcome of the investigation.”
Operation Cookie Monster centred on Genesis Market, a large unlawful on-line market that packaged and bought stolen information. The investigation was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation within the United States with help from police in 17 international locations, together with 28 forces in Canada.
The RCMP’s National Cybercrime Coordination Centre (NC3) stated Genesis Market bought “’bots’ that infected victims’ devices through malware or account takeover attacks … to commit fraud, hack into corporations, drop ransomware and steal intellectual property.”
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NC3 director normal Chris Lynam, who additionally leads the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre throughout the RCMP, stated there have been 79 “distinct law enforcement actions, including arrests, the execution of search warrants and direct engagement of suspected users” in Canada on Tuesday, however wouldn’t say what number of people have been arrested or engaged with. However, he did observe that greater than half of the actions concerned people in Quebec.
“For that reason, the Sûreté du Québec had a major role along with some other municipal police services in Quebec in doing this law enforcement action against the users (of the market).”
Users making an attempt to succeed in Genesis Market noticed this splash web page displaying it was seized following Operation Cookie Monster.
genesis.market by way of Internet Archive Wayback Machine
By the time it was shut down, Genesis Market had over 1.5 million bots and two million identities listed, “making it one of the largest online criminal facilitators,” in keeping with NC3. Lynam defined that the 2 million identities don’t essentially equate to 2 million people impacted.
“If access to your Amazon and your PayPal account was being advertised there that may be one (identity), but if you use a different email, maybe for a different account like your banking or what have you, you might be the same person behind the scene but from the site, those might be advertised for sale as two different things.”
It’s additionally unclear how most of the two million identities have been related to Canadians.
“As this investigation was widespread and involved many international partners, it is difficult to say how many Canadians might have been affected,” a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission spokesperson advised Global News on Wednesday.
“The CRTC is committed to working with our partners, both domestically and internationally, to enhance information sharing, improve target identification and coordinate enforcement.”
Lynam stated Canadians can examine on-line to see if their information was compromised, both by way of HaveIBeenPwned or the Netherlands Police’s on-line portal. If your info comes up, the RCMP suggests you alter your passwords, run antivirus software program in your units and call the group related to the data taken. If you’ve misplaced cash or imagine you’ve been victimized, Lynam stated you must report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
The investigation is ongoing and RCMP ask that anybody who had been energetic on Genesis Market or in touch with its directors to contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
“We do have an ability through the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre for people to report anonymously,” Lynam added.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
