An international coalition of law enforcement agencies took down two hacking forums that had more than 10 million users, according to Europol, one of the agencies involved in the operation.
On Thursday, Europol and Germany’s police the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) announced the seizures of Cracked and Nulled. The BKA called them “the world’s two largest trading platforms for cybercrime on the internet,” according to a machine translation of the BKA’s press release.
Confirmation of the operation comes a day after cybersecurity experts noticed that Cracked, Nulled, as well as two other sites called Sellix and StarkRDP, appeared to have been seized by redirecting the domains’ nameservers to servers run by the FBI. The four sites later displayed a banner announcing the law enforcement action, dubbed “Operation Talent.”
“These sites worked as one-stop shops and were used not only for discussions on cybercrime but also as marketplaces for illegal goods and cybercrime-as-a-service, such as stolen data, malware or hacking tools,” Europol wrote in its press release.
An announcement published on Wednesday on Cracked’s official Telegram channel said the site had been seized “with specific reasons being undisclosed.”
Europol said the operation took place between Tuesday and Thursday and resulted in two arrests, seven properties searched, and the seizure of 17 servers, 50 electronic devices, and 300,000 euros ($313,000) in cash and cryptocurrency.
According to the BKA, the law enforcement coalition seized a dozen accounts and domains across ten countries. Also, twelve people were identified as being involved in operating the cybercrime platforms. Two German citizens — one who lived in Germany, and one who lived in Spain — were arrested; and two others will face prosecution by U.S., Spanish, and Greek authorities. The agencies said they acquired email addresses, IP addresses, and communication histories from the seized forums.
A video published by Europol shows Spanish authorities, the Policia Nacional (National Police) and Guardia Civil entering a building, arresting three people, counting cash, searching an apartment, as well as sitting in front of a computer that displayed the seizure banner.
The operation, which was led by German authorities, also involved law enforcement agencies from Australia, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, as well as the Department of Justice and the FBI in the United States.
Australian Federal Police said in an email that it would “provide an update at an appropriate time.” None of the other agencies involved responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
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Do you have more information about Operation Talent, or other operations against cybercrime? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or email. You also can contact TechCrunch via SecureDrop.
Operation Talent is the latest salvo in a years-long series of law enforcement operations against cybercrime forums, such as the notorious BreachForums, which was seized for the first time in 2023, and again in 2024. Later in 2024, another coordinated international police action — dubbed Operation Endgame — targeted several hacking services and malware makers resulting in the arrest of four suspects. At the time, Europol also identified eight fugitives allegedly involved in the scheme.
