In the underbelly of the internet lies a hidden world known as the darknet markets links, where anonymity reigns supreme, and illicit activities thrive. One of the most notorious aspects of this clandestine network is the darknet markets, where users can buy and sell a wide range of illegal products and services. This article aims to shed light on this shadowy realm, examining its inner workings while also acknowledging the ethical concerns surrounding it.
Understanding Darknet Markets
Darknet markets are online platforms accessible via encryption software like Tor, creating an anonymous environment for users to browse and exchange illicit goods and services. These markets offer various items, including narcotics, counterfeit money, stolen data, hacking tools, counterfeit documents, forged passports, weapons, and more. Some darknet markets even provide assassination services, highlighting the extent to which illegal activities are facilitated within these digital marketplaces.
Structure and Functioning
Darknet markets function similarly to legal e-commerce platforms but are primarily designed to protect the identity of both buyers and sellers. Cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, is the preferred mode of payment, as it further enhances the anonymity of transactions. These markets employ several security measures, such as escrow systems and user reputation systems, to safeguard against scams and police infiltration.
Challenges and Risks
While the darknet market presents a growing industry, it comes with inherent risks. One of the most prominent challenges is law enforcement agencies actively monitoring these platforms. Over the years, several high-profile darknet markets have been shut down, resulting in the arrests of numerous users and administrators involved in illegal activities. However, the resilient darknet market community continuously adapts, migrating to new platforms and darkmarket link employing advanced encryption technology to evade detection.
Ethical Concerns
darknet market markets, by their very nature, aid and abet illegal activities. The availability of narcotics, weapons, and stolen data contributes to the perpetuation of drug addiction, violent crime, and cybercrime. Furthermore, these markets provide a platform for human trafficking, extremist ideologies, and terror financing. Critics argue that the existence of such platforms on the internet poses a significant threat to global security and ethics.
The Ongoing Battle
Governments around the world are engaged in an ongoing battle to combat darknet markets. While law enforcement agencies have scored significant victories, the lucrative nature of these markets makes it challenging to fully eradicate them. Additionally, the decentralized nature of the darknet, coupled with ever-advancing technologies, creates a persistent challenge. It is evident that a multi-pronged approach involving international cooperation, legislation, and technological advancements is crucial to tackling this shadowy realm effectively.
Conclusion
Darknet markets represent the darker side of the internet, challenging law enforcement agencies and ethical norms. While they operate in the murky corners of the digital world, these platforms cannot be ignored as they facilitate a wide range of illegal activities. It is imperative for governments, tech companies, and citizens worldwide to stay vigilant, collaborate, darknet site and work towards curbing this dangerous underworld while also addressing the root causes that fuel its existence. Only through concerted efforts can we hope to protect the integrity and safety of the internet.
In today’s digital age, where almost everything is available at the click of a button, it should come as no surprise that even the illegal trade has found its own virtual space. A realm known as the darknet has emerged, harboring a network of clandestine online marketplaces where all kinds of illegal goods and services are being bought and sold with near-anonymity.
Darknet markets, accessible only through specialized software such as Tor, operate within the dark web, a small portion of the internet that is not indexed by search engines. This anonymity has made darknet markets a haven for criminal activities, allowing users to engage in illicit trade without the fear of being easily traced or identified.
One of the most notorious darknet markets was Silk Road, created in 2011 by Ross Ulbricht, who operated under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Silk Road gained immense popularity due to its wide range of products available for purchase, including drugs, fake passports, weapons, and even hitmen for hire. However, in 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shut down Silk Road and arrested Ulbricht, signaling the beginning of a cat and mouse game between law enforcement agencies and the darknet market operators.
While Silk Road may have been a major blow to the darknet marketplace ecosystem, it was by no means the end. Since then, countless darknet markets have emerged to replace Silk Road, each one trying to evade the attention of authorities and thriving on the insatiable demand for illegal goods and services.
Drugs, especially illicit substances like cocaine, heroin, and synthetic drugs, continue to dominate the darknet market. Vendors offer a wide variety of drugs, accompanied by user reviews and seller ratings similar to those on legitimate e-commerce platforms. This has created a darknet market drug economy worth millions of dollars, enticing countless users to make purchases from the comfort of their homes.
However, drugs are not the only commodities available in these underground markets. Stolen credit card information, counterfeit money, hacking tools, and malware are also sold, providing criminals with resources to carry out their nefarious activities. Additionally, personal information, such as social security numbers and medical records, can be purchased for identity theft purposes.
This flourishing trade poses several challenges for darkmarket 2024 law enforcement agencies. The anonymity of the darknet creates difficulties in tracking down and apprehending criminals. Furthermore, the use of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, as the preferred method of payment on these platforms makes it exceedingly harder to trace financial transactions.
Despite these challenges, law enforcement agencies globally have made significant efforts to combat darknet markets. They employ various techniques, including undercover operations, darkmarket 2024 developing specialized software to track illegal activities, and collaborating with international partners to gather intelligence and take down prominent marketplaces and dark markets their operators.
However, the battle against darknet markets is far from over. As previously successful marketplaces are taken down, new ones quickly emerge, taking advantage of any gaps left in the market. The economic forces and demand for illicit goods are strong, continuously driving the evolution of darknet marketplaces.
In conclusion, darknet markets represent a hidden world of illicit trade, where criminals can engage in activities ranging from drug trafficking to identity theft with relative ease. While law enforcement agencies continue their efforts to combat these marketplaces, the constant evolution of the darknet market poses ongoing challenges and requires innovative techniques to tackle this underground economy.
The darknet market, also known as the deep web, is a part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines and is not easily accessible to the average user. It is a hidden world that exists beyond our regular browsing experience, where anonymity reigns supreme. Within this mysterious online realm lie darknet markets, a hidden economy fueled by illicit activities.
Darknet markets, also known as cryptomarkets or underground markets, are online platforms where all sorts of illegal goods and services are bought and sold. These include drugs, counterfeits, firearms, stolen data, hacking tools, and even hitman services. The marketplaces mostly operate on the Tor network, an anonymizing platform that conceals users’ identities and locations.
One of the most infamous darknet markets was Silk Road, which was created in 2011 by Ross Ulbricht, operating under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” It gained international attention as a digital black market, captivating the media and law enforcement agencies around the world. Silk Road was eventually shut down by the FBI in 2013, but it paved the way for the birth of numerous other darknet markets that continue to flourish.
So, what drives the existence and popularity of these darknet markets?
First and foremost, anonymity is a key element. Darknet markets provide a secure environment for both buyers and sellers, where identities can be concealed using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Encryption techniques make it nearly impossible for authorities to trace financial transactions and investigate illegal activities, allowing users to operate with a sense of impunity.
Additionally, the darknet market markets thrive due to the demand for illegal substances and services. The internet has always been a breeding ground for underground activities, and the darknet offers an amplified version of this. It provides a platform for those seeking drugs, stolen information, or other illegal services to connect with suppliers that would otherwise be difficult to reach.
Moreover, the darknet market has become a hub for intellectual exchange among cybercriminals, fostering innovation and the development of illicit technologies. Hackers and data thieves often share techniques, tools, and dark web market links vulnerabilities on various darknet market forums, allowing for a constantly evolving underground ecosystem that poses a significant risk to cybersecurity.
Despite the blatant illegality and dangers associated with darknet markets, shutting them down completely is an arduous task. The decentralized nature of the darknet, coupled with the constant emergence of new marketplaces, makes it a persistent challenge for law enforcement agencies worldwide.
However, the battle against darknet markets continues. Global efforts are being made to collaborate between law enforcement agencies, sharing intelligence and expertise to tackle this hidden economy. Various tactics, including undercover operations, infiltration of networks, and the seizure of assets, have been employed to disrupt these black markets.
The existence of darknet market markets highlights the dark underbelly of the internet, serving as a wakeup call for society as a whole. It is crucial to address the root causes that fuel the demand for such marketplaces, including the social and economic inequalities that lead individuals to seek refuge in the online underground. By tackling these underlying issues, we can hope to minimize the allure and impact of these illicit activities.
In conclusion, darknet markets represent a notorious aspect of the hidden side of the internet. While the anonymity and accessibility they provide may appeal to those engaging in illegal activities, it is imperative that society collectively works towards eradicating these underground networks. Only through continued cooperation, awareness, and a focus on tackling the underlying issues can we hope to address this global challenge.
In recent years, the rise of darknet markets has caused a significant stir in the realm of online commerce. These underground online marketplaces, accessed through encrypted networks, have become popular hubs for illicit activities and trade. While they have gained notoriety for facilitating illegal transactions, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of what darknet markets truly entail.
Darknet markets, also known as cryptomarkets, operate on peer-to-peer networks, primarily using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. These platforms can only be accessed via specific software or tools, ensuring user anonymity. By employing encryption and routing techniques such as Tor (The Onion Router), darknet marketplaces provide users with a high degree of privacy and make it challenging for authorities to track and shut them down.
One of the fundamental reasons behind the existence and popularity of darknet markets is the demand for drugs. These platforms have become a haven for both buyers and sellers of illegal substances, allowing them to conduct transactions without fear of detection. Users can search for a variety of drugs, read reviews, and compare prices before making a purchase. Vendors leverage escrow services to ensure both parties fulfill their obligations, increasing trust within the marketplace.
However, it is vital to recognize that darknet market markets are not solely limited to drug-related activities. These platforms also offer a range of other illicit goods and services, including counterfeit documents, stolen data, hacking tools, dark markets 2024 weapons, and even contract killers for hire. This wide array of illegal offerings has contributed to the lucrative nature of darknet market markets, attracting cybercriminals, hackers, and fraudsters from all corners of the globe.
While darknet markets have their advantages for those engaging in illegal activities, it is important to emphasize the dangers and risks associated with these platforms. Users are exposed to the possibility of financial scams, receiving substandard products, or encountering law enforcement operations that aim to shut down these marketplaces. Additionally, authorities have been actively working to infiltrate and dismantle darknet markets, leading to high-profile arrests and subsequent trials.
Furthermore, the ethical implications surrounding darknet markets cannot be ignored. The anonymous nature of these platforms makes it difficult for buyers to discern the origins of the products they are purchasing, thereby indirectly supporting criminal activities such as human trafficking, child exploitation, and dark web market list drug cartels. The potential harm caused by these markets extends beyond the online realm, impacting communities and individuals worldwide.
Despite the inherent risks and ethical dilemmas associated with darknet markets, it is crucial not to overlook the broader context from which they have emerged. These platforms have emerged due to various societal factors, such as the failed war on drugs, socioeconomic disparities, and the limitations of traditional law enforcement efforts. Addressing the reasons that drive individuals to turn to darknet markets requires a multi-faceted approach, encompassing harm reduction strategies, social programs, and education.
In conclusion, darknet market markets represent a shadowy underworld of illicit trade, enabled by the deep integration of technology into our lives. While these marketplaces have gained attention and notoriety for facilitating illegal activities, it is essential to delve into the root causes and address the underlying issues that drive individuals to engage with these platforms. Only by understanding these complexities can we work towards a safer, more secure online environment and a society that fosters alternatives to the darknet markets.
This is part of our about how innovators are thinking up new ways to make you — and the world around you — smarter.
“Are you a hacker?”
A Las Vegas driver asks me this after I tell him I’m headed to Defcon at Caesars Palace. I wonder if his sweat isn’t just from the 110℉ heat blasting the city.
All week, a cloud of paranoia looms over Las Vegas, as hackers from around the world swarm Sin City for Black Hat and Defcon, two back-to-back cybersecurity conferences taking place in the last week of July. At Caesars Palace, where Defcon is celebrating its 25th anniversary, the UPS store posts a sign telling guests it won’t accept printing requests from USB thumb drives. You can’t be too careful with all those hackers in town.
Everywhere I walk I see hackers — in tin-foiled fedoras, wearing . Mike Spicer, a security researcher, carries a 4-foot-high backpack holding a “Wi-Fi cactus.” Think wires, antennas, colored lights and 25 Wi-Fi scanners that, in seven hours, captured 75 gigabytes of data from anyone foolish enough to use public Wi-Fi. I see a woman thank him for holding the door open for her, all while his backpack sniffs for unencrypted passwords and personal information it can grab literally out of thin air.
You’d think that, with all the potential threats literally walking about town, Vegas’ director of technology and innovation, Mike Sherwood, would be stressed out. It’s his job to protect thousands of smart sensors around the city that could jam traffic, blast water through pipes or cause a blackout if anything goes haywire.
And yet he’s sitting right in front of me at Black Hat, smiling.
His entire three-person team, in fact, darknet market links is at Black Hat so they can learn how to stave off future attacks. Machine learning is guarding Las Vegas’ network for them.
Broadly speaking, artificial intelligence refers to machines carrying out jobs that we would consider smart. Machine learning is a subset of AI in which computers learn and darknet market list adapt for themselves.
Now a number of cybersecurity companies are turning to machine learning in an attempt to stay one step ahead of professionals working to steal industrial secrets, disrupt national infrastructures, hold computer networks for ransom and even influence elections. Las Vegas, which relies on machine learning to keep the bad guys out, offers a glimpse into a future when more of us will turn to our AI overlords for protection.
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Man and machine
At its most basic, machine learning for security involves feeding massive amounts of data to the AI program, which the software then analyzes to spot patterns and recognize what is, and isn’t, a threat. If you do this millions of times, the machine becomes smart enough to prevent intrusions and malware on its own.
Theoretically.
Machine learning naysayers argue that hackers can write malware to trick AI. Sure the software can learn really fast, but it stumbles when it encounters data its creators didn’t anticipate. Remember how trolls turned ? It makes a good case against relying on AI for cybersecurity, where the stakes are so high.
Even so, that has protected Las Vegas’ network and thousands of sensors for the last 18 months.
Since last February, Darktrace has defended the city from cyberattacks, around the clock. That comes in handy when you have only three staffers handling cybersecurity for people, 3,000 employees and thousands of online devices. It was worse when Sherwood joined two years ago.
“That was the time where we only had one security person on the team,” Sherwood tells me. “That was when I thought, ‘I need help and I can’t afford to hire more people.'”
He’d already used Darktrace in his previous job as deputy director of public safety and city technology in Irvine, California, and he thought the software could help in Las Vegas. Within two weeks, Darktrace found malware on Las Vegas’ network that was sending out data.
“We didn’t even know,” Sherwood says. “Traditional scanners weren’t picking it up.”
Pattern recognition
I’m standing in front of a tattoo parlor in , a little more than 4 miles from Caesars Palace. Across the street, I see three shuttered stores next to two bail bonds shops.
I’m convinced the taxi driver dropped me off at the wrong location.
This is supposed to be Vegas’ $1 million Innovation District project? Where are the in the area? Or the ?
I look again at the Innovation District map on my phone. I’m in the right place. Despite the rundown stores, trailer homes and empty lots, this corner of downtown Vegas is much smarter than it looks.
That’s because hidden on the roads and inside all the streetlights, traffic signals and pipes are thousands of sensors. They’re tracking the air quality, controlling the lights and water, counting the cars traveling along the roads, and providing Wi-Fi.
Officials chose the city’s rundown area to serve as its Innovation District because they wanted to redevelop it, with help from technology, Sherwood says. There’s just one problem: All those connected devices are potential targets for a cyberattack. That’s where Darktrace comes in.
Sherwood willingly banks on Darktrace to protect the city’s entire network because the software comes at machine learning from a different angle. Most machine learning tools rely on brute force: cramming themselves with thousands of terabytes of data so they can learn through plenty of trial and error. That’s how IBM’s Deep Blue computer learned to defeat Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion, in a best-of-seven match in 1997. In the security world, that data describes malware signatures — essentially algorithms that identify specific viruses or worms, for instance.
Darktrace, in contrast, doesn’t look at a massive database of malware that’s come before. Instead, it looks for patterns of human behavior. It learns within a week what’s considered normal behavior for users and sets off alarms when things fall out of pattern, dark market url like when someone’s computer suddenly starts encrypting loads of files.
Rise of the machines?
Still, it’s probably too soon to hand over all security responsibilities to artificial intelligence, says , a security professor and director of Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab Security and Privacy Institute. He predicts it’ll take at least 10 years before we can safely use AI to keep bad things out.
“It’s really easy for AI to miss things,” Brumley tells me over the phone. “It’s not a perfect solution, and you still need people to make important choices.”
Brumley’s team last year built an AI machine that won beating out other AI entries. A few days later, their contender took on some of the world’s best hackers at Defcon. They came in last.
Sure, machines can help humans fight the scale and speed of attacks, but it’ll take years before they can actually call the shots, says Brumley.
That’s because the model for AI right now is still data cramming, which — by today’s standards — is actually kind of dumb.
But it was still good enough to , making him the de facto poster child for man outsmarted by machine.
“I always remind people it was a rematch, because I won the first one,” he tells me, chuckling, while sitting in a room at Caesars Palace during Defcon. Today Kasparov, 54, is the which is why he’s been giving talks around the country on why humans need to work with AI in cybersecurity.
He tells me machines can now learn too fast for humans to keep up, no matter if it’s chess or cybersecurity. “The vigilance and the precision required to beat the machine — it’s virtually impossible to reach in human competition,” Kasparov says.
Nobody’s perfect
About two months before Defcon, I’m at Darktrace’s headquarters in New York, where company executives show me how the system works.
On a screen, I see connected computers and printers sending data to Darktrace’s network as it monitors for behavior that’s out of the ordinary.
“For example, Sue doesn’t usually access this much internal data,” Nancy Karches, Darktrace’s sales manager, tells me. “This is straying from Sue’s normal pattern.” So Darktrace shuts down an attack most likely waged by another machine.
“When you have machine-based attacks, the attacks are moving at a machine speed from one to the other,” says Darktrace CEO Nicole Eagan. “It’s hard for humans to keep up with that.”
But what happens when AI becomes the norm? When everyone’s using AI, says Brumley, hackers will turn all their attention on finding the machines’ flaws — something they’re not doing yet.
“We’ve seen again and again, the reason new solutions work better is because attackers aren’t targeting its weaknesses,” he says. “As soon as it became popular, it started working worse and worse.”
About 60 percent of cybersecurity experts at Black Hat believe hackers will use AI for attacks by 2018, according to a survey from the security company Cylance.
“Machine learning security is not foolproof,” says Hyrum Anderson, principal data scientist at cybersecurity company Endgame, who and their tools. Anderson expects AI-based malware will rapidly make thousands of attempts to find code that the AI-based security misses.
“The bad guy can do this with trial and error, and it will cost him months,” Anderson says. “The bot can learn to do this, and it will take hours.”
Anderson says he expects cybercriminals will eventually sell AI malware on darknet market markets to wannabe hackers.
For now, Sherwood feels safe having the city protected by an AI machine, which has shielded Las Vegas’ network for the past year. But he also realizes a day will come when hackers could outsmart the AI. That’s why Sherwood and his Las Vegas security team are at Black Hat: to learn how to use human judgment and creativity while the machine parries attacks as rapidly as they come in.
Kasparov has been trying to make that point for the last 20 years. He sees machines doing about 80 percent to 90 percent of the work, but he believes they’ll never get to what he calls “that last decimal place.”
“You will see more and more advanced destruction on one side, and that will force you to become more creative on the positive side,” he tells me.
“Human creativity is how we make the difference.”
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BERLIN (AP) – German prosecutors said Friday they have filed charges against four men over their alleged involvement with a major international platform for child pornography that was taken down last year.
Investigators say the “BoysTown” platform, which operated on the darknet market, dark markets 2024 had more than 400,000 members.
Pedophiles used it to exchange and dark Market 2024 watch pornography of children and dark market link web sites toddlers, most of them boys, from all over the world. It was shut down in April 2021.
The suspects are aged between 41 and 65, Frankfurt prosecutors said in a statement. Their names weren’t released, in keeping with German privacy rules.
Two of the men are accused of building the platform in 2019. One of them also allegedly sexually abused two children. The other was extradited in October from Paraguay, where he had lived for a few years.
A third suspect is accused of acting as an administrator and dark web darknet market moderator for the platform as well as sexually abusing two children. Prosecutors say that the fourth man was “one of the most active users” of the platform.
All four are in custody.
The Frankfurt state court now has to decide whether the case will go to trial and if so when. Prosecutors said investigations of other suspected members of the platform are continuing.
THE HAGUE, Oct 26 (Reuters) – At least 150 people have been arrested by European and U.S.
authorities after a joint crackdown on traders of drugs, dark web darknet market weapons and dark darknet market onion other illicit goods on darknet market e-commerce sites, dark web market links Dutch media reported Tuesday citing police agency Europol.
Cash and cryptocurrency worth 26.7 million euros ($31 million) and 234 kilograms of drugs were also seized, according to Dutch broadcaster KRO-NRCV.
“This operation proves that we can reach (criminals on the dark web) even if they think they are hiding somewhere, they cannot be sure we won’t be there at one moment to knock on their door”, Europol’s deputy executive director of operations, Jean-Philippe Lecouffe told the broadcaster.
Europol would not comment on the report, but referred to a press conference set for 10AM local time (1400 GMT) in Washington with the Department of Justice.
According to the Dutch media 65 U.S.
nationals were arrested, along with 47 Germans, 24 Brits and a handful of Dutch, French, Swiss and Bulgarian nationals.
The operation focused on sellers and buyers on the darknet market rather than the people running the sites as in earlier crackdowns.
darknet market markets are e-commerce sites designed to lie beyond the reach of regular search engines.
They are popular with criminals, as buyers and sellers are largely untraceable.
In January this year, Europol announced it had taken down an online marketplace called “DarkMarket” that sold illegal drugs in an operation led by German law enforcement agencies.
($1 = 0.8593 euros)
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, editing by Bart Meijer and Christina Fincher)
US guns make up as much as 60 percent of the weapons on sale on the dark web, new research has found.
Related links
Weapons, drugs and stolen identities are readily available on the dark web, a . To investigate where guns, ammunition and guides to their use come from, the UK’s University of Manchester and darknet market links think tank Rand Europe — or cryptomarkets — and found 811 listings relevant to the study, published Wednesday.
Most weapons were from the USA, where , darknet market magazine and most sales were destined for Europe. A gun bought from the dark market url web was used in a .
“The dark web is both an enabler for the trade of illegal weapons already on the black darknet market and a potential source of diversion for weapons legally owned”, said Giacomo Persi Paoli, the report’s lead author. “The ability for criminals and terrorists, as well as vulnerable or fixated individuals, to make virtually anonymous purchases is perhaps the most dangerous aspect.”
On Thursday, US and European law enforcement agencies the , two of the three largest dark web markets.
WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) – The FBI arrested a husband and wife on Tuesday morning, alleging they conspired to launder cryptocurrency stolen from the 2016 hack of virtual currency exchange Bitfinex, and said law enforcement has already seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency tied to the hack.
The action represents the Justice Department’s largest-ever financial seizure, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, adding in a statement that it shows cryptocurrency is “not a safe haven for criminals.”
Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and darknet sites his wife Heather Morgan, 31, both of Manhattan, are scheduled to make their initial appearances in federal court Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.
in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The case was filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C.
The pair is accused of conspiring to launder 119,754 bitcoin that was stolen, after a hacker attacked Bitfinex and initiated more than 2,0000 unauthorized transactions.
Justice Department officials said the transactions at the time were valued at $71 million in Bitcoin, darknet marketdarknet markets onion address 2024 but with the rise in the currency’s value, it is now valued at over $4.5 billion.
“As the complaint alleges, the FBI and federal prosecutors were able to trace the movement of Bitcoin from this hack,” said Matthew Graves, dark market url the U.S.
Attorney for the District of Columbia.
He added that the money moved through a major darknet market exchange tied to a host of crimes, as well as cryptocurrency addresses tied to child sexual abuse materials.
Tuesday’s criminal complaint came more than four months after Monaco announced the department was launching website a new National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which is comprised of a mix of anti-money laundering and cybersecurity experts.
Cyber criminals who attack companies, municipalities and individuals with ransomware often demand best darknet marketdarknet markets 2024 payment in the form of cryptocurrency.
In one high-profile example last year, former partners and associates of the ransomware group REvil website caused a widespread gas shortage on the U.S.
East Coast when it used encryption software called DarkSide to launch a cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline.
The Justice Department was later recovered website some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom that Colonial paid to the hackers.
(Reporting by Sarah N.
Lynch and Raphael Satter; Editing by Richard Chang)
NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Chinese cryptocurrency addresses sent more than $2.2 billion worth of digital tokens to addresses tied to illegal activity such as scams and darknet sites operations between April 2019 and June 2021, according to a report from blockchain data platform Chainalysis released on Tuesday.
These addresses received $2 billion in cryptocurrency from illicit sources as well, making China a large player in digital-currency related crime, it added.
The report analyzes China’s cryptocurrency activity amid government crackdowns.
However, China’s transaction volume with illicit addresses has fallen drastically over the two-year period in terms of absolute value and relative to other countries, Chainalysis said.
The big reason is the absence of large-scale Ponzi schemes such as the 2019 scam involving crypto wallet and darknet market marketplace exchange PlusToken that originated in China, it noted.
Users and customers lost an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion from the PlusToken scam.
The vast majority of China’s illegal fund movements in crypto has been related to scams, darknet marketdarknet markets 2024 links although that has declined as well, the Chainalysis report said.
“This is most likely because of both the awareness raised by PlusToken, as well as the crackdowns in the area,” said Gurvais Grigg, global public sector darknet market chief technology officer at Chainalysis, in an email to Reuters.
The report also cited trafficking out of China in fentanyl, a very potent narcotic pain medication prescribed for severe pain or pain after surgery.
Chainalysis described China as the hub of the global fentanyl trade, with many Chinese producers of the drug using cryptocurrency to carry out transactions.
Money laundering is another notable form of crypto-based crime disproportionately carried out in China, Chainalysis said.
Most cryptocurrency-based money laundering involves mainstream digital currency exchanges, often through over-the-counter desks whose businesses are built on top of these platforms.
Chainalysis noted that China appears to be taking action against businesses and individuals facilitating this activity.
It cited Zhao Dong, founder of several Chinese OTC businesses, darknet markets Links pleading guilty in May to money laundering charges after being arrested last year.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Richard Chang)