The favorite and most used (VPN) Virtual Private Network- Safe-Inet has been taken down in a coordinated action by the German Reutlingen Police Headquarters along with the FBI, Europol, and other agencies.
The three VPN service providers (insorg.org, safe-inet.com, and safe-inet.net) are known for their bulletproof hosting services. The seize of the domains are part of Operation Nova.
The Safe-Inet infrastructure has been seized in Germany, France, Netherland, the United States, and Switzerland. All the servers of Safe-Inet are taken down and the domain is seized too.
Safe-Inet is one of the most popular VPN service providers in the dark web providing up to five layers of anonymity connections through its services. Many cyber-criminals use these services for E-skimming, and Ransomware frauds.
The investigation carried out by our cybercrime specialists has resulted in such a success thanks to the excellent international cooperation with partners worldwide. The results show that law enforcement authorities are equally as well connected as criminals.
Udo Vogel, Police President of the Reutlingen Police Headquarters
Europol supported the seize by bringing all the involved countries together and establish a joint strategy to collect evidence against the service provider for the final shutdown.
The strong working relationship fostered by Europol between the investigators involved in this case on either side of the world was central in bringing down this service. Criminals can run but they cannot hide from law enforcement, and we will continue working tirelessly together with our partners to outsmart them.
Edvardas Šileris, Head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre
