An operation coordinated by Europol led to the arrest of four individuals responsible for the operation of one of the largest child pornography platforms in Europe. The four detainees, all of German origin, performed various functions related to the maintenance of this platform, hosted on dark web.
The illegal platform, known as Boystown, was eliminated thanks to the joint work of the German Federal Criminal Police, Europol and investigative agencies in the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States and Australia.
According to Europol’s report, at the time of its seizure this platform had at least 400 thousand registered users, most of them active. The operation also involved the removal of several chat sites hosted on the dark web and frequented by sexual predators of infants.
This is a perfect example of the behavior of these child abuse clans and the actions taken by Europol for their dismantling. For example, cybercriminals frequently switch platforms, operating from multiple illegal websites and abandoning those that will inevitably be intervened by law enforcement agencies, as well as rotating the administration of these sites between different members to make it difficult to track.
Video records and images seized by Europol will be vital for identifying victims and filing charges against those responsible. More arrests and rescues are expected globally as police around the world examine Europol’s intelligence packages.
For the time being, the charges to be brought by each country’s police agencies against the four arrested subjects are unknown, although Europol is expected to release an update on this as soon as the investigation progresses.
To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.
He is a cyber security and malware researcher. He studied Computer Science and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2006. He is actively working as an cyber security investigator. He also worked for different security companies. His everyday job includes researching about new cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in enterprise security implementation.