Darkode, described by federal authorities as "a crime bazaar for hackers," was penetrated by the FBI and busted in an effort that on Wednesday led to 29 arrests around the world.
Authorities said a Darkode probe by the FBI in Pittsburgh went into high gear 1 ½ years ago and resulted in pulling in the resources of agencies in Washington, San Diego, New Orleans and San Francisco,
according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The collaboration then tapped online enforcement teams in 20 countries, including several European countries, Israel, Australia, Colombia, Brazil and Nigeria, to identify Darkode members and arrest them.
"Hackers and those who profit from stolen information use underground Internet forums to evade law enforcement and target innocent people around the world," said assistant attorney general Leslie R. Caldwell in a
statement from the Department of Justice's criminal division.
One of those indicted, Johan Anders Gudmunds, 27, of Sweden, allegedly operated his own botnet, consisting at times of more than 50,000 computers, and stole data from them on more than 200 million occasions,
reported National Public Radio.
Gudmunds was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, noted NPR. Authorities believe he served as Darkode's administrator while creating and selling malware that allowed hackers to create botnets.
"Of the roughly 800 criminal Internet forums worldwide, Darkode represented one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers in the United States and around the world and was the most sophisticated English-speaking forum for criminal computer hackers in the world," said the DOJ's David J. Hickton.
"Through this operation, we have dismantled a cyber-hornets' nest of criminal hackers which was believed by many, including the hackers themselves, to be impenetrable," said Kickton.
Federal prosecutors said the Darkode investigation is continuing, led by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Western District of Pennsylvania with help from the criminal division's computer crime and intellectual property section.
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