this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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177
Police boast of hacking VPN where criminals "believed themselves to be safe" (arstechnica.com)
submitted 15 hours ago by FTonsilStones@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Law enforcement intercepted VPN traffic, seized domains, and arrested its operator.

Europol announced yesterday the results of the operation against the service, First VPN. The First VPN website now displays a message saying the domain was seized by a joint international law enforcement action.

“A VPN service used by cybercriminals to conceal ransomware attacks, data theft, and other serious offenses has been dismantled in an international operation led by France and the Netherlands, with support from Europol and Eurojust,” the agency said. “For years, the service, known as ‘First VPN,’ was promoted on Russian-speaking cybercrime forums as a trusted tool for remaining beyond the reach of law enforcement. It offered users anonymous payments, hidden infrastructure, and services designed specifically for criminal use.”

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[–] BloodMuffin@lemmy.ca 12 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

You mean 1VPN was made by law enforcement to catch criminals?

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 7 points 6 hours ago

If it didn't start that way, as we see here it did become one.

[–] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 27 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I don’t know if this one is but that would be my first assumption about any vpn that’s explicitly advertising to criminals to do crime

[–] BloodMuffin@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 hours ago

makes sense. then law enforcement can claim they cracked the criminal VPN, which both casts doubt on VPN security, and makes VPNs look criminal.