Popular data theft programs have been taken offline by Operation Magnus, led by Dutch police.

Operation Magnus is a collaboration between the Belgian Federal Police, the Dutch Police and the American FBI. TechCrunch reports that authorities gained access to “Info thieves Redline and Meta and then took them offline. This type of malware is specifically designed to steal data such as passwords, credit card details, search history and crypto wallets.

Great players

Redline is one of the most commonly used data theft programs by hackers. It has been around since 2020 and was used, among other things, in the hack of Uber in 2022. Cybercriminals are said to have gained access to Uber’s internal systems via an employee account. Then they made off with explicit data. Meta is relatively new software, and while both exploit people’s data, it’s important to make it clear that the malware has nothing to do with the parent company behind Facebook.

Through the servers, the police gained access to all of the hackers’ data, including user names, passwords, IP addresses and software source codes. These users have been assigned a corresponding “VIP status”: Very important for the police.

It is not yet known whether any arrests have been made, but according to the Operation Magnus website, all those involved have been informed and legal action will be taken.