UK police takes down LabHost

As per the information provided by Britain’s Metropolitan Police, LabHost was utilised by nearly 2,000 criminals to steal users’ personal details, including email addresses, passwords, and bank details. The police mentioned that it identified under 70,000 individual UK victims who entered their details into a website linked to LabHost. At the time of the announcement, the authorities arrested a total of 37 suspects.

The police took down the websites and, instead of the information on their pages, it included a message stating that law enforcement seized the services. According to the data gathered by the authorities, LabHost acquired 480,000 credit card numbers, 64,000 PIN codes, and 1 million passwords utilised for websites and other online services. Additionally, the statement mentions that approximately 25,000 victims in the UK were contacted by the police to notify them that their data was compromised.

LabHost was developed in 2021 by creating fake websites by a criminal cyber network intending to scam victims out of key personally identifiable information, including bank details and passwords. Criminals utilised this to exploit victims via existing sites or make new websites simulating trusted brands such as banks, healthcare providers, and postal services. According to the Metropolitan Police Service’s officials, the current news underlined how law enforcement globally can collaborate with one another and private sector partners to shut down international fraud networks at source. In this quest, the police were supported by private companies including Chainanalysis, Intel 471, Microsoft, The Shadowserver Foundation, and Trend Micro.

Furthermore, the investigation began in June 2022 after the police received intelligence about LabHost’s activity from the Cyber Defence Alliance, an intelligence-sharing partnership between banks and law enforcement agencies. Afterwards, the UK’s law enforcement collaborates with the National Crime Agency, City of London Police, Europol, regional UK authorities, and international police forces.

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