FBI Captures Genesis Market Server, Reveals Criminal Identities

The FBI and the US Department of Justice have successfully shut down the notorious Genesis Market platform, according to statements from both organisations. The platform was identified and located via its internal servers, and investigations and server confiscation were carried out on April 4 with the help of international law enforcement agencies. This operation led to the inclusion of all three domains of the site in the sanctions list of the US Treasury, with the site being identified as based in Russia, along with its .onion site. Despite attempting to remain active on several criminal forums, the real identities of Genesis administrators were revealed as a result of data discovered on the servers.
The uncovered servers included data on the trading platform, 59,000 user accounts and stolen accounting data. This discovery revealed email addresses and protected messenger accounts, user histories, and Genesis accounting data. International law enforcement also managed to purchase 115 “bots” from Genesis Market, enabling them to confirm the site’s illegal activity. Investigations found that the platform “actually collected and sold personal information of victims around the world.” The servers located also contained up to 80 million records of stolen accounting data, including over 200,000 accounts linked to federal and local authorities.