Police confiscated servers that sold personal data

The Cyprus Police confiscated servers that hosted websites that sold personal data of American citizens and were a product of hacking, in a joint operation with the FBI, the head of Cyber Crime Unit, Andreas Anastasiades, has told CNA.

"The FBI is investigating the theft and dissemination of personal data and illegal access to electronic data, where the data of 24 million US citizens were found to have been stolen and offered for sale for various purposes to other services or individuals", Anastasiades said, replying to a question from CNA on the subject.

He further added that "it was found that this data was stored on four websites in Cyprus, where, in cooperation with the FBI, and after an investigation, it was possible to stop these services. The sale of this data is no longer available and all the necessary evidence has been confiscated".

As a result of the investigation, the servers located in Cyprus which were hosting these websites were confiscated. The server administrator, a resident of Cyprus, fully cooperated with the police, according to Anastasiades, while the suspects are abroad.

"The investigation lasted about 6 months for the Cypriot Police and is considered to be of great importance," he noted, adding that the case is still ongoing until it is fully solved.

In a Twitter post today, the Cyprus Police announced that they had contributed, in a joint operation with the FBI, to put offline an online market that sold the personal data of millions of people in the USA.

"@Cyprus_Police had a significant contribution to @FBI's international operation to put offline an online marketplace that sold the names, social security numbers and birth dates of millions of Americans. #SSNDOB #Cyprus #cypolice", said the post on Twitter, which was accompanied by a press release of the US Department of Justice that referred to the case and the contribution of the Cypriot Police in it.

The US Attorney's Office statement said that the SSNDOB market, which consists of a series of websites selling more than 20 million social security numbers, has been seized and dismantled  in international operation.

"United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg, along with Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon for the IRS - Criminal Investigation Washington D.C. Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge David Walker for the FBI - Tampa Division, today announced the seizure of the SSNDOB Marketplace, a series of websites that operated for years and were used to sell personal information, including the names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers belonging to individuals in the United States. The SSNDOB Marketplace has listed the personal information for approximately 24 million individuals in the United States, generating more than $19 million USD in sales revenue," the press release noted.

"The international operation to dismantle and seize this infrastructure is the result of close cooperation with law enforcement authorities in Cyprus and Latvia," it added.

"On June 7, 2022, seizure orders were executed against the domain names of the SSNDOB Marketplace (ssndob.ws, ssndob.vip, ssndob.club, and blackjob.biz), effectively ceasing the website’s operation", while adding that "the U.S. investigation was led by the IRS - Criminal Investigation Cyber Crimes Unit and the FBI – Tampa Division, with assistance from the IRS-Criminal Investigation’s Tampa Field Office. Substantial assistance was also provided by the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the FBI’s Legal Attaché Offices responsible for Latvia and Cyprus, the Latvian Police, and the Cyprus Police," it noted.