From TechRadar · · 2m
FBI shuts down Virtualine bulletproof hosting service
The FBI and international partners seized infrastructure from Virtualine, a hosting provider that openly facilitated ransomware, phishing, child exploitation and cryptocurrency laundering.
In brief
The FBI and international partners seized infrastructure from Virtualine, a hosting provider that openly facilitated ransomware, phishing, child exploitation and cryptocurrency laundering. The FBI and German and Dutch authorities seized Virtualine, a bulletproof hosting service that advertised itself to cybercriminals…
FBI seizes bulletproof hosting service
The FBI and German and Dutch authorities seized Virtualine, a hosting provider that served cybercriminals. Police raided a data center in Limburg and confiscated dozens of physical servers.
Access to thousands of customer records
The operation gave authorities access to information about more than three thousand of Virtualine's customers. Dutch police said they are taking follow-up actions towards these users.
What bulletproof hosting does
Bulletproof hosting providers resist pressure from authorities and do not comply with takedown requests. Most regular hosting providers comply with law enforcement, but this subset operates differently.
Virtualine openly advertised to criminals
The US Department of Justice said Virtualine advertised on cybercrime forums: you can use Virtualine for all illegal slash black hat activities including phishing, carding, email spam, port scanning and all others except for child…
“You can use Virtualine for all illegal/black hat activities (including phis[h]ing, carding, email spam, port scanning and all others) except for child contents and terrorism activities.”
Offered protection from law enforcement
In March twenty twenty-six, Virtualine introduced an additional protection plan offering customers who received takedown requests another shell company not affiliated with Virtualine, after which the server is reactivated.
Hosted child exploitation despite denials
Virtualine claimed it did not accept child pornography, but the DOJ said it did exactly the opposite.
Ignored warnings from multiple countries
Law enforcement agencies from Germany, Canada and Australia notified Virtualine about the child exploitation forum. Virtualine ignored the warnings and continued hosting the client.
Laundered cryptocurrency from criminals
Virtualine customers paid in Bitcoin using an unhosted bitcoin address allowing them to direct pay without concern their funds would be flagged as illicit. The wallet received funds from ransomware operations and Russian-language cybercrime forums.
Service likely to return online
The main website virtualine dot net was defaced with an FBI seizure notice.No arrests have been made.The service is partially online but disruptions are usually temporary and it will likely become fully operational again.
At a glance
The FBI and German and Dutch authorities seized Virtualine, a bulletproof hosting service that advertised itself to cybercriminals and hosted child exploitation material despite claiming not to.
