Law Enforcement Takes Down Redline and Meta Infostealer Servers, Targets Malware Users

Dutch authorities, in cooperation with many other international partners, including the FBI, have taken down the Redline and Meta infostealers' infrastructure, which included servers and source code.

Infostealers represent a type of malware designed to collect information from an infected device and transmit it back to the attackers. Depending on the type of infostealer, hackers can capture keystrokes, screenshots, data from web browsers (passwords, cookies, autofill information) and data from system files or installed software.

Of course, all that data needs to be sent back to the attackers, which is why capturing the infrastructure used in these attacks is essential, not just blocking them at the user level.

Dutch authorities announced, with a very brief video, that "on the 28th of October 2024 the Dutch National Police, working in close cooperation with the FBI and other partners of the international law enforcement task force Operation Magnus, disrupted operation of the Redline and Meta infostealers."

This announcement is even more interesting because the Dutch National Police gained full access to all Redline and Meta servers, noting that the two were practically the same.

According to the authorities, these particular infostealers provided them with a lot of interesting information on the customers that used the malware, including user names, passwords, IP addresses, timestamps, registration, date and much more.

The Dutch National Police also found licensed servers, API servers, panels and telegram bots. Moreover, authorities also have information about VIP users of this malware, for which they say, kiddingly, that VIP actually means "very important to the police."

Depending on how extensive the infrastructure was for this specific malware, it's possible to see a decrease in the number of attacks using Redline and Meta, especially since the authorities are going after the people who used the services provided by this threat.