Cybercrime Forum Dismantled in International Bust

cybercrimes, were arrested and charged, the Department of Justice and the FBI said in a blog post Wednesday. Law enforcement agencies from 20 countries were involved in Operation Shrouded Horizon, making the Darkode takedown the largest coordinated international law enforcement effort ever directed at an online cybercrime forum, a DOJ news release said. A dozen individuals in the U.S. were indicted, search warrants were served in the U.S. and the FBI seized Darkode’s domain and servers, DOJ and the FBI said. The investigation focused primarily on the Darkode members responsible for developing, distributing, facilitating and supporting the “most egregious and complex cyber criminal schemes targeting victims and financial systems around the world,” they said. “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,” U.S. Attorney David Hickton of the Western District of Pennsylvania said. “This is a milestone in our efforts to shut down criminals’ ability to buy, sell, and trade malware, botnets and personally identifiable information used to steal from U.S. citizens and individuals around the world,” FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano said.