Dark Web Forum Shut Down: A Precision Strike Against the Global Ransomware Ecosystem.
30/01/2026
On May 15, Eastern Time, when users attempted to access the dark web forum RAMP, the familiar black trading interface had been replaced by an official seizure notice. The notice stated: The FBI has seized RAMP. Accompanying it was the forum's famous slogan—The only place where ransomware discussions are allowed!—alongside an ironic image of Masha winking from the Russian animated series *Masha and the Bear*. This operation, led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in collaboration with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Department of Justice's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, marks a critical milestone in international law enforcement's crackdown on the Russian-speaking cybercrime ecosystem. As one of the few top-tier dark web markets that still openly allowed ransomware promotion since 2021, the disappearance of RAMP not only severs a core hub for criminal communication but also suggests that law enforcement may have gained access to vast amounts of user data and communication records behind it.
A long-planned law enforcement operation and technological takeover.
From a technical perspective, this seizure was executed cleanly and decisively. Law enforcement not only took control of RAMP's Tor onion service addresses but also seized its clearnet domain, ramp4u.io. The domain name server records have been switched to servers commonly used by the FBI in seizure operations. This dual-line control means that regardless of how users attempt to access the site, they will be directly confronted with the law enforcement notice. Cybersecurity researchers point out that this takeover method is identical to previous actions against similar criminal forums (such as AlphaBay, Hans Market), following the typical pattern of covert takeover followed by a sudden public announcement.
The key lies in the data. A post by forum administrator Stallman on another hacker forum, XSS, confirmed the shutdown and expressed frustration: Law enforcement has taken control of the RAMP forum... This has destroyed my years of work building 'the world's freest forum.' His concerns are not unfounded. For a criminal forum active for nearly three years, its database must contain a large amount of registered users' email addresses, potentially leaked IP addresses, private messages, transaction records, Bitcoin wallet addresses, and even internal administrative logs. For any threat actor with lapses in operational security (Opsec), this data could become clues pointing to their real identities. Following the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack by DarkSide in 2021, intense pressure from Western law enforcement led major Russian-language hacker forums like Exploit and XSS to successively ban public discussions of ransomware. It was against this backdrop that RAMP emerged in July 2021, quickly filling the market gap and becoming a primary marketplace for multiple ransomware gangs to recruit affiliates, buy and sell network access, and exchange attack techniques.
The key figures behind the forum and the origins of the chaos.
The birth of RAMP is closely linked to a threat actor known as Orange, who also uses aliases such as Wazawaka and BorisElcin. His true identity is that of Russian citizen Mikhail Matveev, which was publicly exposed by renowned cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs and confirmed by Matveev himself to Dmitry Smilyanets, a researcher at Recorded Future. Matveev's criminal record is quite typical: he was once an administrator of the Babuk ransomware group, which disbanded in 2021 after an internal split following an attack on the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. The split was triggered by internal disputes over whether to publicly leak the stolen law enforcement data. After the data breach, the group dissolved.
Matveyev utilized Babuk's original Tor domain and infrastructure to create RAMP. He claimed that the forum was established to repurpose Babuk's existing traffic and facilities, emphasizing that RAMP ultimately did not generate profits and suffered long-term distributed denial-of-service attacks, leading him to gradually withdraw from management after the forum gained popularity. However, official records paint a different picture. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice prosecuted Matveyev, accusing him of involvement in multiple ransomware operations, including Babuk, LockBit, and Hive, which targeted U.S. healthcare institutions, law enforcement agencies, and other critical infrastructure. In the same year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on him, the FBI added him to the wanted list, and the U.S. Department of State offered a reward of up to 10 million dollars for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
The chain reaction impact on the global ransomware crime ecosystem.
The shutdown of RAMP is not an isolated incident, but the latest link in the international collaborative effort to combat ransomware crime chains. Over the past two years, from the infiltration and dismantling of the Hive ransomware group's infrastructure to the arrest of LockBit's main administrator and the police takeover of its leak site, law enforcement actions have shifted from merely arresting individual criminals to systematically destroying the online infrastructure and trust systems they rely on for survival. As an information intermediary, talent marketplace, and reputation platform, RAMP's functions are difficult to replace quickly.
Analysts point out that this crackdown has produced multiple effects. In the short term, it creates a chilling effect, forcing active ransomware affiliates to shift to more covert and niche communication channels, thereby increasing their collaboration costs and trust risks. In the medium term, law enforcement agencies can map out a clearer picture of criminal networks by analyzing seized data, potentially triggering a new wave of global arrests. In the long term, this continuously squeezes the operational space of the ransomware-as-a-service model, forcing criminal models to evolve or relocate. However, challenges remain. Most core operators are located in jurisdictions without extradition treaties with the United States, making physical apprehension extremely difficult. As long as the economic gains from ransomware attacks remain substantial, new forums will always sprout in deeper, darker corners of the internet.
The Evolution of Offense and Defense Logic in the New Era of Cyber Law Enforcement.
This operation clearly demonstrates the strategic shift in modern cybercrime enforcement: moving from endpoint arrests to ecosystem disruption. Instead of spending years tracking an anonymous cryptocurrency address, it is more effective to directly take over its communication platform and obtain the social graph of an entire community. This resembles an intelligence war. The FBI's seizure page deliberately used RAMP's own slogans and Russian cultural symbols. This psychological mockery and deterrence are part of information warfare, aimed at undermining the morale of criminal communities and publicly showcasing the technical capabilities of law enforcement agencies.
The deeper reason lies in the intertwining of geopolitics and cyberspace. Although key figures like Matveyev are located in Russia, RAMP's server infrastructure, domain registrars, and even some users inevitably intersect with digital entities under the jurisdiction of the United States and its allies. This provides a foothold for cross-border law enforcement. From a strategic perspective, continuously targeting such high-profile cybercrime platforms is both a necessary measure to protect national critical infrastructure and a way to establish rules and demonstrate capabilities in cyberspace. For global enterprises, the disappearance of RAMP is a positive signal, but it is far from the end. The root of the ransomware threat lies in the borderless, highly profitable business model and the imbalance in the global digital defense system. As long as vulnerabilities exist and ransoms are paid, this cat-and-mouse game between the dark web and the clear web is far from over. Every major victory by law enforcement is merely the beginning of a new round of offense and defense.
Reference materials
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/fbi-seizes-ramp-cybercrime-forum-used-by-ransomware-gangs