"DoubleVPN" service used by hackers seized and shut down

[June 30, 2021]    AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Europol, the European police coordinating agency, said on Wednesday that police in Europe, the United States and Canada had seized the domains and servers of "DoubleVPN", a network used by criminals to hide their identity during cyber attacks.

The company's website on Wednesday showed a warning from law enforcement officials saying they had seized the domain, along with information that DoubleVPN kept about its customers.

Europol said in a statement that customers had received access for $25 to a VPN, or virtual private network, that allowed hackers to shield their real identity and location while they broke into networks around the world.

"DoubleVPN was heavily advertised on both Russian- and English-speaking underground cybercrime forums as a means to mask the location and identities of ransomware operators and phishing fraudsters," it said.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.