On Friday the 27th, German State Criminal Police Office (LKA) reported that German security agencies managed to shut down the data center located in a NATO-bunker, Rhineland-Palatinate, used for criminal acts in the Darknet.
Prosecutor Juergen Bauer stated that a total of 13 people related to CyberBunker were arrested, including seven Dutch and three German residents, seven of which were arrested on Thursday. All of them are considered to be cybercriminals who are accused of illegal operational activities such as the sale of illegal weapons, child pornography distribution, drug trafficking, tax offence, data theft, and forgery. Besides, several cyberattacks have occured. Investigations have been carried out since 2015. In addition to Germany, there are also Polish, Swedish and Dutch authorities involved into the operations.
CyberBunker is an Internet service provider that is supposed to host any web sites except those connected to child pornography or terrorism. However, CyberBunker has been previously accused of hosting online scams, malware, and spammers. It has also been involved in Border Gateway Protocol hijacks of IP addresses used by Spamhaus. The company is named after a place it was once located in, which is a former Cold War bunker in Traben-Trarbach, Western Germany. Furthermore, the location of CyberBunker’s servers is unclear.
As part of this operation, a total of approximately 18 search raids were conducted in Germany and neighboring European countries.
