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| Europol suspends VPN services that help criminals |
As part of an unprecedented police operation, Europol and the FBI leased a VPN service called Safe-Inet, which was helping cybercriminals hide their actions.
The service keeps no logs and does not route traffic through any number of VPN connections.
While many VPN services work hard to ensure customer privacy and security, the company has clearly crossed the line.
Millions of internet users around the world use VPNs to ensure data security and protect their privacy online.
Another great benefit of a VPN is that the VPN blocks users' physical IP addresses and turns them into anonymous users, thus preventing unnecessary intrusion of external monitoring devices.
While there are reasons to remain anonymous, criminals can also misuse these services.
This can be a problem because most VPN service providers do not keep identifiable records, which makes law enforcement difficult.
Europol and the FBI stopped the service and the service did everything it could to make it invisible to clients.
According to Europol, the service has been used by some of the biggest cyber criminals, including ransomware operators, and these criminals can use VPN services to avoid detection.
European law enforcement agencies said: This VPN service has been sold to the criminal world at a high price and it is one of the best tools to avoid law enforcement agencies' interception. Provides up to 5 layers of anonymous VPN connections.
Law enforcement has identified around 250 companies around the world that use a VPN for criminal surveillance.
These companies were then warned about impending ransomware attacks on their systems so that they could take steps to protect themselves from such attacks.
Operation Nova targets multiple VPN servers and domains that also provide hosting services.
US authorities have also seized multiple servers and checked three associated domain names: INSORG.ORG, SAFE-INET.COM, and SAFE-INET.NET.
All areas carry confiscation cards and IDs from the various law enforcement agencies that supported the operation.
The US Department of Justice has stated that this service aims to provide hosting services or VPN services to criminals.
It is designed to enhance online criminal activity and enable officials to evade detection by law enforcement agencies.
Many of these services are posted in online forums devoted to criminal activity.