The police in the Netherlands have seized approximately 250 physical servers powering a bulletproof hosting service used exclusively by cybercriminals. The service, which provided complete anonymity to its users, has been taken offline.
The police force in the Netherlands, Politie, did not publicly name the service. However, they confirmed the hosting company had been used for illicit activities since 2022 and has appeared in more than 80 cybercrime investigations, both domestic and abroad.
Bulletproof Hosting and Cybercrime
Bulletproof hosting providers are companies that intentionally ignore abuse reports and refuse to comply with law enforcement takedown requests. They protect their clients by not enforcing Know Your Customer (KYC) policies, often requiring payment in hard to trace cryptocurrency.
Cybercriminals rely on these services for maintaining anonymity while running their operations, including ransomware attacks, malware distribution, phishing campaigns, spammers, and money laundering services. The seized hosting company specifically advertised complete anonymity and no cooperation with law enforcement. The investigation revealed the company facilitated ransomware attacks, botnet operations, phishing campaigns, and the distribution of child abuse content.
Operation and Aftermath
The police operation, conducted last week, resulted in the confiscation of hundreds of physical servers located in data centers in The Hague and Zoetermeer. The seizure of these physical assets simultaneously took thousands of virtual servers offline.
Investigators will now conduct forensic analysis on the seized servers to gain more insight into both the operators of the service and their clients. At this time, no arrests have been announced.
Although the authorities declined to name the provider, sources indicate the operation targeted CrazyRDP, a service that offered Virtual Private Server (VPS) and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) services with no KYC and no logs policies. CrazyRDP was often recommended among threat actors for its commitment to anonymity. Following the police action, the service has been offline, and customer discussions indicate confusion among users who feared an exit scam after technical support stopped responding to login issues.
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