Microsoft DCU uses UK courts to hunt down cyber criminals | Computer Weekly

"In its first ever major legal action outside the United States, Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) has disrupted cyber crime-as-a-service network RedVDS - whose subscribers have cheated their victims out of millions of pounds - after obtaining separate court orders in the UK and Florida. The DCU turned to the British legal system because the malicious infrastructure used to run RedVDS was hosted by a UK-based provider. A great number of victims of RedVDS users, well over 7,500, are also located in the UK, it said."

""Cyber crime today is powered by shared infrastructure, which means disrupting individual attackers is not enough. Through this coordinated action, Microsoft has disrupted RedVDS's operations, including seizing two domains that host the RedVDS marketplace and customer portal, while also laying the groundwork to identify the individuals behind them," said Microsoft DCU assistant general counsel, Stephen Masada."

"The RedDVS cyber criminal service charged as little as $24 (£18) per month to provide digital fraudsters with access to disposable virtual computers used to scale fraud operations cheaply and securely. The DCU believes RedVDS users have compromised more than 191,000 organisations worldwide since September 2025 and netted over $40m in the US alone, with prominent victims including Alabama-based H2-Pharma, a supplier of allergy, cancer and mental health medications, which lost $7.3m; and Florida-based Gatehouse Dock Condominium Association, which was tricked out of"

Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit obtained court orders in the UK and Florida to disrupt the RedVDS cybercrime-as-a-service network. The malicious infrastructure was hosted by a UK provider, and well over 7,500 victims of RedVDS users are located in the UK. Microsoft seized two domains hosting the RedVDS marketplace and customer portal and began steps to identify the operators. Europol's EC3 and German authorities including ZIT and the Criminal Police Office for Brandenburg supported the action. RedDVS charged as little as $24 per month for disposable virtual machines, enabling large-scale fraud that has compromised hundreds of thousands of organisations and netted millions.

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