Authorities Shut Down DoubleVPN, a Service Popular Among Hackers

As a result of an international law enforcement operation led by Europol, the Russian VPN service DoubleVPN, which was highly popular among cybercriminals, has been shut down. The service was advertised as a multi-layered VPN network, allowing malicious actors to access malware server panels and victim infrastructures without revealing their real IP addresses. DoubleVPN’s services ranged in price from $25 to $200 per month.

“DoubleVPN was widely promoted on both Russian- and English-language underground forums as a tool for ransomware operators and phishing scammers to mask their location and identity. The service claimed to provide a high level of anonymity, offering its clients single-, double-, triple-, and even quadruple-layer VPN connections,” law enforcement officials stated.

Europol coordinated the seizure of DoubleVPN servers in Canada, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Authorities report that they not only confiscated the servers but also gained access to personal information about the service’s clients, as well as logs and statistics. Interestingly, the service operators had previously assured users that they did not keep any logs or statistics and “did not monitor their clients.”

In a published press release, Europol stated that the coordinated takedown of DoubleVPN was carried out by the Dutch National Police with international support, coordinated by Europol and Eurojust.

Law enforcement officials say they cannot share any additional information at this time, as other investigations related to the shutdown of the service are currently ongoing.