WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TRM Labs has launched the Disruption Awards, celebrating the people and partnerships disrupting crime together. Three coalitions received the inaugural awards at a ceremony at Washington’s historic Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on the opening night of Resolve, TRM’s annual user conference, on November 2.
Each award honors a coalition of two or more organizations that led to an impactful disruption. This year’s winners reflect the principle behind the awards: the most effective disruptions happen when law enforcement and private companies share intelligence and act on it together.
The Blackout, which recognizes the removal or disabling of criminal infrastructure at scale, was awarded to the coalition that disrupted Tycoon 2FA, a phishing-as-a-service platform that by mid-2025 accounted for about 62% of the phishing attempts Microsoft blocked. On March 4, 2026, acting under a U.S. court order and in coordination with Europol, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit seized 330 domains used to run the service, while partners contributed threat intelligence, traced stolen funds, and notified more than 200 national computer emergency response teams. The coalition includes Europol, Microsoft, SpyCloud, Coinbase, the Shadowserver Foundation, Intel 471, and Trend Micro and multiple other law enforcement agencies throughout Europe.
The Architect, which recognizes a repeatable method for disruption that other organizations can adopt, was awarded to the Scam Center Strike Force for its May 2026 Disruption Week. Over four days in Washington, the Strike Force, led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, brought federal agents from several U.S. federal law enforcement agencies and private companies together to act against scam compounds in Southeast Asia. According to the Justice Department, participants disrupted more than 1.4 million social media and email accounts and voluntarily froze more than USD 3.8 million in cryptocurrency. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro accepted the award on behalf of the Strike Force. The coalition includes the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, IRS Criminal Investigation, Tether, Meta, Google, the UK’s National Crime Agency, and the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
The Lifeline, which recognizes intervention that prevents harm to potential victims at scale, was awarded to the investigators and platforms behind a series of two-day sprints that began in February 2026 at the Davie Police Department in Florida. The sprints put state, local, and federal investigators in the same room as payment and crypto platforms to resolve records, attribution, and legal-process questions in real time, turning leads into action within days. The investigations largely focused on child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and led to arrests in the U.S. and UK. The coalition includes the Davie Police Department; Indiana State Police; Block, Inc.; Robinhood; Coinbase; Stripe; IRS Criminal Investigation; and PayPal.
Winners were selected from open nominations against published criteria, without regard to the products participants use.
“Today, AI crime is winning – but together, we can turn the tide,” said Esteban Castaño, CEO and Co-founder of TRM. “I congratulate the teams recognized at the Disruption Awards, who succeeded in large part because they collaborated across boundaries, sharing intelligence with organizations outside their own walls. It’s the sort of collaboration we’re excited to see more of, and at TRM, we’re working to make it easier than ever before, as we move toward our mission of building a safer world for billions of people.”
Nominations for the 2027 Disruption Awards open in April 2027.
About TRM Labs
TRM is the AI investigations company. Ardence, the operating system for investigators, gives teams more capacity to uncover the networks behind modern crime and take action against it. TRM is trusted by 600+ government agencies and financial institutions across 75 countries to support missions combating fraud, scams, cybercrime, child exploitation, money laundering, and sanctions evasion.
To learn more, visit www.trmlabs.com.
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