A black market website known as Rydox was taken offline through a concerted multi-national operation involving law enforcement agencies from several countries. Interestingly, the marketplace is operated through servers that are located in Kuala Lumpur according to the announcement made by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Given the location of the servers, it is not surprising to see that the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) of Malaysia and the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) were among the law agencies involved in the operation. Led by the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, the operation also involved the Kosovo State Prosecutor’s Special Prosecution Office, Kosovo Police’s Cybercrime Investigation Directorate, and the Albanian Special Anti-Corruption Body.
Rydox cybercrime activities generate at least RM1 million in revenue
Aside from servers, the authorities had also seized cryptocurrencies worth around USD225,000 (~RM 1 million) that belonged to Rydox’s admins. Said to be in operation since early 2016, Rydox’s cybercrime activities revolve around the sales of personal information, stolen access credentials, and cybercrime tools.
According to court documents, Rydox moved its domain to a Malaysian web hosting company in August 2017 after their original web hosting provider in Uruguay terminated their account. The Malaysian web hosting company was not named in the documents.
DOJ said that the marketplace offers over 320,000 cybercrime products to more than 18,000 customers. The announcement also noted that Rydox has made at least USD230,000 (~RM 1.02 million) in revenue since its inception 8 years ago.
Rydox administrators were not Malaysians
Even though the servers were located in Malaysia, none of the captured administrators were Malaysian. DOJ said that two of the administrators were Kosovo nationals Ardit Kutleshi and Jetmir Kutleshi who were arrested in Kosovo.
Another administrator, Kosovo national Shpend Sokoli was arrested in Albania instead. Unlike Ardit and Ketmir who are currently waiting for extradition to the United States, Shpend is expected to be charged and prosecuted in Albania.
