AI-generated editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.
Microsoft and Google disrupted RedVDS, an online marketplace that sold virtual machines for phishing, business email compromise and other cyberattacks. The companies coordinated through the Global Signal Exchange (GSE), a nonprofit threat-data sharing platform, according to TechRadar Pro.
Domains and servers seized
Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit monitored the operation before Microsoft sought action in UK and US courts in January 2026 to seize RedVDS web domains. Google used the shared data to identify related accounts on its networks and suspend them. Servers were also impounded in Germany, while Europol acted against RedVDS infrastructure in Europe.
Scale of the alleged fraud
TechRadar Pro described RedVDS as a $66 million fraud marketplace, rather than reporting that figure as verified revenue or profit. The service offered quickly deleted virtual machines intended to be difficult to trace, with a basic scam-ready machine priced at $24 per month.
The source said RedVDS-provided machines were used to target 130,000 organizations between September and December 2025, during which 191,000 Microsoft email accounts were reportedly compromised. Those figures are attributed to the report and are not presented as independently verified totals.
Why the exchange mattered
The incident illustrates the limits of investigating cybercrime within one company’s network. Information shared through the GSE allowed Microsoft and Google to connect activity across their services and coordinate disruption involving courts, infrastructure providers and law enforcement.
A continuing collaboration
The UK-based GSE was co-founded with Google in 2025 to monitor the cybercrime supply chain in real time. Microsoft and Google said they plan to continue sharing information through the exchange, whose other listed partners include Meta and Amazon. The source also reported a separate case involving a Microsoft-impersonation tech-support scam identified through the same network.
SIGNAL TITANS
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