Seizure concerns the confiscation or disruption of devices, systems, or data, with implications for digital evidence, service access, and incident response.
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Background for this topic.
Seizure is the lawful taking or securing of devices, servers, domain names, accounts, cryptocurrency, or stored digital data by an authorized authority for an investigation or legal proceeding. In information-security reporting, the term usually concerns the acquisition of digital infrastructure or evidence, not a seizure-related medical event. Authorities may take physical equipment, redirect or disable online services, or obtain data from a provider under applicable legal process.
The security challenge is preserving evidence without changing it: investigators may document the chain of custody, isolate systems, and use forensic copies while protecting originals from alteration. Live systems can contain volatile evidence, while encryption, remote access, cloud tenancy, and deleted data complicate collection. Seized infrastructure may also contain unrelated customer or employee information, creating privacy and access-control obligations. For defenders, a seizure can interrupt services and signal an investigation; maintaining accurate asset ownership records, logs, backups, and documented legal or incident-response contacts helps establish what systems and data are affected.
Weekly headline count for the current query.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday announced the seizure of a cloud computing account put to use by subsidiaries of Cambodia-based corporate conglomerate HuiOne Group, as the Treasury unveiled fresh sanctions against nine individuals and 26 entities linked to Prince Group
A coordinated international operation involving U.S. and Chinese authorities has arrested at least 276 suspects and shut down nine scam centers used for cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes targeting Americans, resulting in millions of dollars in losses
An international law enforcement operation has taken down 53 domains and arrested four people in connection with commercial distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) operations that were used by more than 75,000 cybercriminals
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) this week announced the seizure of $61 million worth of Tether that were allegedly associated with bogus cryptocurrency schemes known as pig butchering
The U.S. Justice Department (DoJ) on Monday announced the seizure of a web domain and database that it said was used to further a criminal scheme designed to target and defraud Americans by means of bank account takeover fraud
Europol on Friday announced the disruption of a sophisticated cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) platform that operated a SIM farm and enabled its customers to carry out a broad spectrum of crimes ranging from phishing to investment fraud
A Chinese national has been convicted for her role in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme after law enforcement authorities in the U.K. confiscated £5.5 billion (about $7.39 billion) during a raid of her home in London
The U.S. Secret Service on Tuesday said it took down a network of electronic devices located across the New York tri-state area that were used to threaten U.S. government officials and posed an imminent threat to national security
Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit said it teamed up with Cloudflare to coordinate the seizure of 338 domains used by RaccoonO365, a financially motivated threat group that was behind a phishing-as-a-service (Phaas) toolkit used to steal more than 5,000 Microsoft 365 credentials from 94 countries since July 2024
A newly emerged ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) gang called Chaos is likely made up of former members of the BlackSuit crew, as the latter's dark web infrastructure has been the subject of a law enforcement seizure
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday announced sweeping actions targeting the North Korean information technology (IT) worker scheme, leading to the arrest of one individual and the seizure of 29 financial accounts, 21 fraudulent websites, and nearly 200 computers
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said it has filed a civil forfeiture complaint in federal court that targets over $7.74 million in cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital assets allegedly linked to a global IT worker scheme orchestrated by North Korea
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday announced the seizure of cryptocurrency funds and about 145 clearnet and dark web domains associated with an illicit carding marketplace called BidenCash
A multinational law enforcement operation has resulted in the takedown of an online cybercrime syndicate that offered services to threat actors to ensure that their malicious software stayed undetected from security software
Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (aka Bundeskriminalamt or BKA) has seized the online infrastructure and shutdown linked to the eXch cryptocurrency exchange over allegations of money laundering and operating a criminal trading platform
A joint law enforcement operation undertaken by Dutch and U.S. authorities has dismantled a criminal proxy network that's powered by thousands of infected Internet of Things (IoT) and end-of-life (EoL) devices, enlisting them into a botnet for providing anonymity to malicious actors
Law enforcement authorities in seven African countries have arrested 306 suspects and confiscated 1,842 devices as part of an international operation codenamed Red Card that took place between November 2024 and February 2025
A coalition of international law enforcement agencies has seized the website associated with the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex ("garantex[.]org"), nearly three years after the service was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April 2022
Source: The Nation A coordinated law enforcement operation has taken down the dark web data leak and negotiation sites associated with the 8Base ransomware gang
An international law enforcement operation has dismantled the domains associated with various online platforms linked to cybercrime such as Cracked, Nulled, Sellix, and StarkRDP