RaidForums hacking site taken down by UK and global partners

One of the world's largest hacking forums has been taken down in an international operation.

The illegal marketplace RaidForums made a name for itself by selling access to high-profile database leaks from a number of US corporations across different industries.

The databases contained information on millions of credit cards, bank account numbers and routing information, and the usernames and associated passwords needed to access online accounts.

“The datasets were obtained from data breaches carried out in recent years,” Europol said.

It has been shut down and its infrastructure seized as a result of Operation Tourniquet, a joint investigation by the US, UK, Sweden, Portugal and Romania.

The forum’s administrator and two of his accomplices have also been arrested.

Operation Tourniquet, co-ordinated at the international level by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, was the culmination of a year of “meticulous planning” between the law enforcement authorities involved in preparation for the action.

“Disruption has always been a key technique in operating against threat actors online, so targeting forums that host huge amounts of stolen data keeps criminals on their toes,” the head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, Edvardas Šileris, said.

“Europol will continue working with its international partners to make cybercrime harder — and riskier — to commit.”

Launched in 2015, RaidForums was considered one of the world’s biggest hacking forums with more than half a million users.

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Anxiety and work stress major factors

Anxiety, work stress and social isolation are all factors in the recogised rise in mental health problems.

A study UAE Ministry of Health researchers published in the summer also cited struggles with weight and illnesses as major contributors.

Its authors analysed a dozen separate UAE studies between 2007 and 2017. Prevalence was often higher in university students, women and in people on low incomes.

One showed 28 per cent of female students at a Dubai university reported symptoms linked to depression. Another in Al Ain found 22.2 per cent of students had depressive symptoms - five times the global average.

It said the country has made strides to address mental health problems but said: “Our review highlights the overall prevalence of depressive symptoms and depression, which may long have been overlooked."

Prof Samir Al Adawi, of the department of behavioural medicine at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, who was not involved in the study but is a recognised expert in the Gulf, said how mental health is discussed varies significantly between cultures and nationalities.

“The problem we have in the Gulf is the cross-cultural differences and how people articulate emotional distress," said Prof Al Adawi.

“Someone will say that I have physical complaints rather than emotional complaints. This is the major problem with any discussion around depression."

Daniel Bardsley