The FBI’s capture of the internal servers of Genesis Market has provided special services with detailed information about cybercriminals who traded stolen accounting data and accessed compromised computers through the market. The operation to eliminate Genesis Market and its administrators has been dubbed the COOKIE MONSTER operation, which involved 119 arrests, 208 searches, and interrogations across 15 different countries.
According to officials, the COOKIE MONSTER operation is the largest operation ever conducted by law enforcement agencies to identify sellers and buyers of stolen accounts. Although the site has been taken down, two domains and entrance pages to Genesis Market remain active, including the Internet site and its .onion version in the darknet. Rumors of the site’s administrators still being active and offering new domains in the near future have also surfaced on criminal forums.
Operation Cookie Monster marks the latest US campaign against cybercrime, following the arrest of Conor Fitzpatrick, the administrator of Breachforums forum, in March, and the FBI’s capture of HIVE IT infrastructure in January after several months of infiltrating the group’s networks.