‘Operation Cookie Monster’: Major criminal marketplace shut down in worldwide police blitz

Aussie cops have played a major role in bringing down a huge global criminal marketplace used by crooks to buy passwords.

The sting led to dozens of arrests. Picture: NCA

Aussie cops have played a major role in bringing down a huge global criminal marketplace used by crooks to buy passwords.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) joined global law enforcement agencies from 17 nations, including the FBI, the UK’s National Crime Agency and the Dutch National Police, as part of “Operation Cookie Monster”.

It succeeded in shutting down Genesis Market, which sold millions of victims’ digital fingerprints, including personal details such as login information and IP addresses, for as little as $1 to criminals following a string of raids.

Genesis Market has been shut down after the global operation.

Across the planet, 120 people were arrested during 200 searches, and now any would-be criminals attempting to access the site is greeted with the message: “Operation Cookie Monster. This website has been seized”.

It is expected that Australian criminals could be nabbed as part of the operation.

The NCA labelled the site, which was established in 2017, “an enormous enabler of fraud”, with passwords available from victims’ Facebook, PayPal, Netflix, Amazon, eBay, Uber and Airbnb accounts.

The site sold victims’ digital fingerprints to crims.

“For too long criminals have stolen credentials from innocent members of the public,” Robert Jones, director general of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, said.

“We now want criminals to be afraid that we have their credentials, and they should be.

“It was a very sophisticated website, very easy to use, with a wiki telling you how to use it, and accessible on the open web and the dark web.

“So you didn’t need to be a sophisticated cyber actor to get into this. You just needed to be able to use a search engine, and then you could start committing crime.”

The AFP was part of the international sting. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

Will Lyne, NCA Head of Cyber Intelligence, added that Genesis made it “really easy” to carry out criminal activity.

“To get up and running on this you just have to know of the site, potentially be able to get yourself an invite which given the volume of users probably wouldn’t be particularly difficult,” he said.

“Once you become a user, it’s really easy to then … perpetrate criminal activity.”

Genesis Market was primarily used for carrying out fraud, although the data could also be used in ransomware attacks, and victims included both individuals and companies.

The sting led to dozens of arrests. Picture: NCA

The raid serves as a timely reminder for people to change their passwords regularly, opt for string password options and use two-factor authentication to boost their online security.

Click here to find out whether you were a Genesisi victim.

News.com.au contacted the AFP for comment.

The AFP will also hold a media conference this morning where new details are expected to be released.