Two hackers have been arrested after trying to sell 12 billion usernames and passwords online, Deutsche Welle reported citing the Dutch police. The police said the arrest was made because investigators managed to track payments to an IP address used by one of the criminals.
One of the criminals was detained in the Dutch city of Arnhem after law enforcement received a tip from the country’s cybercrime unit, which worked closely with the FBI, Britain's NCA, and German police. Another hacker was arrested in Northern Ireland. Both men are aged 22. Police officers who raided the home of the Dutch suspect found professional equipment that allowed them to sell stolen data online.
The National Crime Agency said the data posted on the website WeLeakInfo.com was stolen during 10,000 breaches of popular websites like LinkedIn and apps like MyFitnessPal. Commenting on the huge amount of information stolen by the hackers, the NCA said: "Criminals rely on the fact that people duplicate passwords on multiple sites and data breaches such as these create the opportunity for fraudsters to exploit that", the NCA said in a statement.
The website, which has since been shut down, offered unlimited access to information for $2 a day or $25 a month.