Hack Forums
[World] First VPN Dismantled in Global Takedown Over Use by 25 Ransomware Groups - Printable Version

+- Hack Forums (https://hackforums.net)
+-- Forum: General Topics (https://hackforums.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=7)
+--- Forum: World (https://hackforums.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=445)
+---- Forum: News and Happenings (https://hackforums.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=89)
+---- Thread: [World] First VPN Dismantled in Global Takedown Over Use by 25 Ransomware Groups (/showthread.php?tid=6325969)



First VPN Dismantled in Global Takedown Over Use by 25 Ransomware Groups - DramaticIllusion - May 24, 2026

Authorities in Europe and North America have announced the dismantling of a criminal virtual private network (VPN) service used by criminal actors to obscure the origins of ransomware attacks, data theft, scanning, and denial-of-service attacks.

Codenamed Operation Saffron, the disruption of First VPN Service was led by France and the Netherlands, with several other nations supporting the investigation since December 2021, including Luxembourg, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine, the U.K., Canada, Germany, the U.S., Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Portugal.

First VPN, per Europol, offered services designed specifically for criminal use, allowing anonymous payments and a hidden infrastructure that enabled paying customers to hide their identities when carrying out ransomware attacks, large-scale fraud, and data theft.

The international operation took place between May 19 and 20, during which authorities took a series of concurrent actions that involved interviewing the service's administrator, conducting a house search in Ukraine, taking down 33 servers, and seizing infrastructure used to support cybercriminal activity globally.

The names of confiscated domains are listed below -

1vpns[.]com
1vpns[.]net
1vpns[.]org
Related onion domains operating on the Tor network


RE: First VPN Dismantled in Global Takedown Over Use by 25 Ransomware Groups - PremiumJoe - May 24, 2026

Also convenient for the corrupt law enforcement to associate VPNs with ransomware and crimes in general. That makes it easier to motivate takedowns of all VPNs, including the fully legitimate ones. First they outlaw encryption, then the VPNs, and so on.

English schools:

"Remember kids, only criminals use VPNs, so never do that. Not to mention encryption. Always leave the bathroom door open when you take a dump so Sir Keir Starmer can monitor everything..."

Sorry for ranting. 😡


RE: First VPN Dismantled in Global Takedown Over Use by 25 Ransomware Groups - DramaticIllusion - May 24, 2026

(May 24, 2026 05:50 PM)PremiumJoe Wrote:  Also convenient for the corrupt law enforcement to associate VPNs with ransomware and crimes in general. That makes it easier to motivate takedowns of all VPNs, including the fully legitimate ones. First they outlaw encryption, then the VPNs, and so on.

English schools:

"Remember kids, only criminals use VPNs, so never do that. Not to mention encryption. Always leave the bathroom door open when you take a dump so Sir Keir Starmer can monitor everything..."

Sorry for ranting. 😡


I Agree with this, everyday we slowly lose our freedom to protect ourselves with anonymity and digital finger-reduction. I don't believe VPN's themselves are harmful but its rather what the consumer does with it.


RE: First VPN Dismantled in Global Takedown Over Use by 25 Ransomware Groups - 7 - May 24, 2026

what a shit vpn company anyway.
Build you own VPN's

https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=6272921
https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=6303716


RE: First VPN Dismantled in Global Takedown Over Use by 25 Ransomware Groups - DramaticIllusion - May 24, 2026

(May 24, 2026 06:08 PM)7 Wrote:  what a shit vpn company anyway.
Build you own VPN's

https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=6272921
https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=6303716

+ this aswell. Lowkey may checkout your hyper-linked thread. 🤣✌


RE: First VPN Dismantled in Global Takedown Over Use by 25 Ransomware Groups - KtDan - Jun 16, 2026

what’s going on man?