Law enforcement has taken action against the criminal misuse of VPN services. A large number of cybercriminals used VPN services provided by VPNLab.net, which police recently shut down. VPN providers' services, designed to provide shielded communications and Internet access, were used to support serious crimes such as ransomware deployments and other cybercriminal activities.

A special team of Delhi Police recently arrested six people in a crackdown on exam cheating in Mumbai, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan. The criminal gang advertised on the dark web to attract candidates to pay high fees and used hacking to get them to pass the exams.

Vienna drug investigators have arrested five suspects for trafficking marijuana on the dark web. They had grown marijuana in five locations in eastern Austria and sent it by mail.

A ransomware group that stole some confidential information held by the British police used "phishing" to attack an IT company serving the police, demanding ransom from the IT company called Dacoll.

For the first time, operators of dark web data centers were convicted of making illegal operations in the network possible in the first place. However, they were acquitted of charges of aiding and abetting some 250,000 crimes on the site.

In recent years, Russia has been steadily pushing for more Internet censorship, requiring foreign tech giants to open representative offices in the country and store data on local servers, and banning several VPNs in addition to blocking Tor.

Video clips taken from thousands of hacked "smart home" cameras showing victims naked and even having sex are being sold online.

The group brought in at least 425,000 euros (£360,000) and may have gained access to government systems or obtained encryption keys from national health authorities.

Data is a popular commodity on the dark web, where people buy and sell sensitive information, much of which is stolen through cyber vulnerabilities. Usernames, passwords, account numbers, financial records, credit card details, medical records - all of these are available for access.

Bitdefender is actively supporting this investigation by providing key technical insights throughout the process, as well as providing decryption tools for both prolific ransomware families to help victims recover their files. kpn and McAfee Enterprises are additional supportive partners who are also supporting the investigation by providing technical expertise to law enforcement. This investigation.