Cybercrime does not operate in isolation. Behind ransomware groups and other threat actors lies an ecosystem of services that provides the infrastructure, anonymity and resilience they need to operate.
In May 2026, French and Dutch authorities dismantled First VPN, a service specifically catering to cybercriminals and used to facilitate ransomware attacks and other serious cybercrime. The operation resulted in 33 servers being dismantled, while intelligence obtained during the investigation created opportunities far beyond the original case.
In this session, investigators from the French Police, the Netherlands Police High Tech Crime Unit and Europol take the audience behind the operation. We will show why targeting criminal facilitators can have an impact across the cybercrime ecosystem, how intelligence from one investigation can fuel many others, and how national investigations come together through Europol to become a coordinated international response.
Please find the press release in the link below: