News
How was Kidflix shut down?
Written on 11.04.2025 12:44 by Janine Schneider
Dear all,
as someone asked this morning how Kidflix was shut down and how cryptocurrencies contributed to this, I wanted to briefly elaborate on the case here. In fact, the case is another good example of the importance of digital forensics and how such cases are handled. The platform used the Tor network and cryptocurrencies to remain supposedly anonymous. Investigators became aware of the platform through the so-called “Darknet Monitor”, which does exactly what the name suggests. Often the next step in such investigations is to infiltrate the platform to gather insider knowledge. In addition, similar to the Silk Road case, cryptocurrency transactions were analyzed to identify the perpetrators. A key institution involved in this case is the ZCB (Zentralstelle Cybercrime Bayern), a team of prosecutors and forensic experts who work exclusively on cybercrime cases. Together with institutions such as Europol, they were able to successfully combat this platform, which emphasizes the importance of international cooperation in such cases. Research has also contributed to this success as the Darknet Monitor, for example, was co-developed by Dutch researchers, as were cryptocurrency de-anonymization tools.
Best,
Janine