Janet Yellen Finance at an event highlighting “anti-corruption work as a cornerstone of a fair, accountable and democratic economy” as part of the 2023 Democracy Summit held at the Treasury Department on March 28, 2023. The Secretary gave the opening remarks. Washington DC.
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WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has authorized Genesis Market, a “darknet” marketplace, for illegal activities related to the theft and sale of device credentials and other sensitive data.
International market steals personal information from victims’ devices and sells it, Treasury mentioned in the release Wednesday.
The Treasury Department’s announcement comes a day after the FBI and a consortium of international law enforcement agencies shut down the Genesis Market.
The Genesis Market was a sophisticated marketplace of stolen digital identities that allowed malicious actors to impersonate customers of companies such as Amazon, Coinbase, and Fidelity. Stolen identities, called “bots,” are taken from infected computers and are worth as much as $450 per bot, cybersecurity expert Matthew Gracie McMinn told his CNBC.
The OFAC designation comes specifically as part of a larger push to Genesis. According to our records, the Genesis domain name was linked to nameservers in Russia and China. named As a site for state-sponsored hacking.
The Treasury Department believes Genesis is located in Russia, but said its illegal activities have spread around the world. It edits personal data (mobile device identifiers, email addresses, usernames, passwords, etc.) and sells them to cybercriminals. Genesis also sells unauthorized access to computer systems.
According to the Treasury Department, as of February 1, about 460,000 stolen identity packages were on the market.
“The United States, along with our international partners, will not allow illicit markets to operate with impunity,” said Brian E. Nelson, Treasury Department Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a release. “The Treasury will work closely with our law enforcement colleagues to disrupt this activity and hold malicious cyber actors to account.”
The action was taken in concert with the Department of Justice and a dozen other countries that have taken law enforcement proceedings against Genesis and seized the domains of websites tied to the marketplace.
This is a developing story. Please check the latest information.
