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VPNLab.net takedown

January 2022, Criminal hosting and proxies
Led by Bundeskriminalamt

Extended pass entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

What was taken down?

Servers seized in a coordinated multi-country operation.

See what happened

What happened to the people?

No individual outcomes are recorded against this entry.
Group accounted for: Not established

See people and accountability

Did it stay down?

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

See what happened afterward

A German/international coalition seized VPNLab.net, a VPN service used by cybercriminals including ransomware affiliates to anonymize their operations.

Date
January 2022
Target
VPNLab.net, bulletproof vpn service
Activity
Criminal hosting and proxies
Operational lead
BKA
Partners
Europol[1]
Jurisdiction
Not established
Outcome
Servers seized in a coordinated multi-country operation.
Status
Completed
Legal mechanism
Coordinated national judicial/search-and-seizure authority.
Group accounted for
Not established

No individual is named against this entry in the cited record. That is a gap in what has been published rather than a finding that nobody was involved.

Group accounted for: Not established

The cited record does not say how large the group was or whether everyone involved has been identified.

See the organizations and roles behind this action

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.

Official sources

  1. [1]
    VPNLab.net shut down after Europol coordinated action

    Europol, January 18, 2022, Source grade P2

    Establishes the coordinated seizure of VPNLab.net infrastructure.

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

Coverage note. Added from deep-research aggregation pass. Not independently re-verified source-by-source to the same standard as the original 38-incident core; source_quality capped at S2/P2 pending a dedicated verification pass.