"These operations often contain large amounts of data on thousands of criminals and threat actors, which authorities can leverage for further investigation and prosecution," said Michael Jepson, head of penetration testing at CybaVerse.
Europol-led operation: timeline and immediate actions
From May 19 to 20, law enforcement led by France and the Netherlands, with Europol coordination, dismantled infrastructure tied to a virtual private network (VPN) service used by ransomware operators, fraudsters and data thieves. Investigators took 33 servers offline, seized three domains and interviewed the service's administrator during a house search in Ukraine. The three seized domains were 1vpns.com, 1vpns.net and 1vpns.org, and associated onion-routed addresses were also taken down.
First VPN's footprint in investigations
Europol described the service, referred to in reporting as First VPN, as appearing in "almost every major cybercrime investigation" the agency had supported in recent years. The service had been advertised for years on Russian-language cybercrime forums, marketed explicitly as a way for criminals to remain invisible to law enforcement. Europol said the service accepted anonymous payments and operated infrastructure tailored to illicit use, enabling attackers to hide the origin of ransomware campaigns, large-scale fraud operations and bulk data theft.
The intelligence haul: data obtained and how it is being used
Investigators began the inquiry in December 2021 and, over the course of the probe, gained access to the service and obtained its user database. Cybersecurity firm Bitdefender supported Europol's work. The material collected has been substantial: authorities have produced 83 intelligence packages for international partners, disseminated information on 506 users globally, and advanced 21 Europol-supported investigations using the data gathered. Investigators have also reached out to the VPN's users to notify them that they have been identified.
What this means for technologists, investigators, and affected enterprises
- Technologists and security teams: The seizure provides a dataset that defenders and incident responders can use to correlate activity. The connection of First VPN to ransomware, fraud and data theft means forensic teams should watch for indicators tied to the domains and server infrastructure now taken offline.
- Investigators and prosecutors: The operation demonstrates a blend of disruption and intelligence-gathering. As Michael Jepson noted, the strategic value of takedowns can be the subsequent investigative leads — in this case already resulting in dozens of intelligence packages and hundreds of identified users to pursue.
- Affected enterprises and procurement leaders: Organizations that have suffered ransomware, fraud or data loss should expect fresh investigative momentum. The material shared with international partners and the 21 advanced Europol-supported investigations indicate follow-on casework that could identify culpable actors or reveal campaign linkages affecting corporate incident response and liability assessments.
Why dismantling infrastructure matters beyond immediate disruption
The takedown of First VPN illustrates a two-fold law enforcement effect: operational disruption of a tool widely advertised to criminals, and the generation of intelligence with follow-through value. Europol's reporting emphasizes both dimensions — servers and domains rendered unusable and a captured user database that has already been converted into actionable intelligence. As CybaVerse's Michael Jepson put it, the long-term benefit often lies in the data that fuels further investigation and prosecution.
The May 19–20 action, originating from an investigation that began in December 2021 and supported by Bitdefender, produced concrete outputs — 33 servers dismantled, three domains seized, an administrator interviewed and a trove of material shared with partners. Those facts frame what law enforcement can claim as immediate success, and they set the terms for the next phase of casework that Europol and national authorities will pursue.
