VPNLAB Brought Down by Europol

Europol grabbed the attention on shutting down of VPNLab, a VPN service that had often been used by cybercriminals. Law enforcement authorities seized 15 servers across 10 countries. Police in Germany, the Czech Republic, France, Latvia, Hungary, Ukraine, the UK, the US, and Canada took part in the operation.

VPNLab was launched in 2008, promising online anonymity for as little as $60 per year, the VPN service was used by many cybercriminals, including in the distribution of ransomware and other malware as advertised in the dark web.

The VPNLab domain, vpnlab.net, currently displays a message informing visitors that the domain has been seized by law enforcement. The message claims authorities have obtained customer data stored on seized servers and an investigation has been launched.

More than one hundred businesses been identified as at risk of cyberattacks. Law enforcement is working directly with these potential victims to mitigate their exposure. VPNLab is not the only VPN service targeted by law enforcement in recent years due to its use by cybercriminals. In December 2020, Europol announced the disruption of a service called Safe-Inet.