Police take First VPN offline after five-year investigation

Dutch and French police, working with Europol, shut down the criminal VPN service First VPN after a five-year investigation.

Authorities arrested the Ukrainian administrator, seized servers in 27 countries, and accessed the service’s user database.

The database helped investigators identify thousands of users linked to cybercrime cases, including ransomware activity.

The takedown exposes infrastructure used by criminal groups and gives police new leads on wider cybercrime networks.