German police have shut down an Internet forum used by cybercriminals to share malicious software and password stealing programs.
Cops from the Landeskriminalamt (LKA) Internet crime unit say the codesoft.cc messageboard was being used by crooks to share information about hacking, spyware and creating false credit cards.
Police suspect a 22 year old man from Lucerne, Switzerland, of being a site administrator and selling password stealing software under the name "tr1p0d".
Following a raid on his flat, authorities confiscated PCs and claim to have found a database of codesoft.cc's users and their IP addresses.
Police also allege that two men, aged 25 and 28, from Germany used the Swiss man's 'Codesoft PW Stealer' Trogan to infect around 80,000 computers worldwide before selling on sensitive data to other hackers.
Last October a two year FBI-led undercover operation led to the closure of the Dark Market forum used by cybercriminals around the world to buy and sell credit card data, user names and passwords.
Around 56 people were arrested following co-ordinated raids carried out in the US, Germany, Turkey and the UK.