Security News > 2020 > March > FBI arrests alleged owner of Deer.io, top market for stolen accounts
The FBI on Saturday arrested the alleged owner of Deer.io: a Russia-based marketplace for buying and selling credentials for hacked accounts siphoned off of malware-infected computers, victims' personally identifiable information, as well as financial and corporate data.
Out of all the shops on Deer.io, the FBI still hasn't found a single legitimate business advertising its services and/or products, and it's been looking.
The Bureau reviewed about 250 storefronts and found thousands of compromised accounts posted for sale, including gamer accounts, along with files containing user names, passwords, US taxpayer IDs, dates of birth, and addresses for victims, who are largely located in Europe and the US. Deer.io offers a "Turnkey" online storefront design and hosting platform on Russian servers that are beyond the reach of US law enforcement, according to court papers.
For about $170 in Bitcoin, the FBI also picked up about 999 individual PII accounts.
The Feds haven't outlined what led them to finger Firsov as the alleged admin of Deer.io, but security journalist Brian Krebs has traced a line of clues, starting with a Twitter profile that says he's a security researcher and developer who currently lives in Moscow.