On a darknet market called “Dread,” a vendor going by “ExploitDOT” is attempting to sell user data from the know-your-customer (KYC) data top cryptocurrency exchanges ask for, required by most jurisdictions. According to data shared with CCN, the hacker has an ad that has been online since July 2018, in which he claims to have hacked documents used in KYC checks – including identity cards and...
US District Judge Robert Scola has imposed a 20-year prison sentence on 36 year-old Gal Vallerius also known as “Oxymonster” on the dark web drug hub Dream Market. In June, CCN reported that the French-Israeli citizen was apprehended by police at Atlanta airport in 2017 while attending the World Beard and Moustache Championship in Austin Texas. He will now start his prison term in Southern...
One of the foremost experts on the operations of the US Supreme Court has identified Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht’s case as one that raises questions that have “a reasonable chance of being granted” a hearing by the Court “in an appropriate case.” Tom Goldstein, the co-founder of respected law blog SCOTUSblog, selected Ulbricht v. United States as Jan. 23’s “petition of the day.” This...
After two of darknet’s biggest markets, Hansa and AlphaBay, were taken down by two global law enforcement operations, Dream Market gained thousands of users and became one of darknet’s biggest marketplaces. On September 13, according to reports, Dream Market went down for several hours, which led users to believe its admins had pulled an exit scam – a popular scam in which fraudsters shut down...
According to Naked Security, a few Dream market vendors apparently reused their credentials from busted marketplaces such as Hansa, and didn’t enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on their accounts, meaning police easily got control of their accounts, and effectively locked them out. According to a researcher, at least 16 different darknet vendors have been compromised because they reused...
As previously covered by CCN, two of darknet’s biggest marketplaces, AlphaBay and Hansa, were taken down by law enforcement. AlphaBay was taken down by an operation dubbed “Bayonet”, which included raids on the market’s server in Canada and the U.S., and the arrest of Canadian national Alexander Cazes, its admin, in Thailand. Alexander was later found dead in his cell. When AlphaBay was taken...
Bitmixer.io, one of the largest bitcoin mixing services in the world, recently announced through Bitcointalk that it’s shutting down operations despite “huge profits”, citing a change in ideology, meaning the admins now believe that bitcoin isn’t an anonymous currency. The service’s admin added that he believes the cryptocurrency will have “a great future without darknet market transactions”. The...
During a press briefing at the Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed that president Donald Trump ordered the DOJ to go after organized international cybercrime organizations like AlphaBay. He stated: “[Donald Trump] gave us several directives. One is to dismantle transnational criminal organizations. That is what we are announcing today. Dismantling of the...
On July 16, CCN published a development on what happened to the biggest darknet marketplace, AlphaBay, after it was down for over 10 days. At the time, reports suggested that authorities managed to raid its servers in Canada and the U.S., and arrest its alleged admin Alexander Cazes, a Canadian national, in Thailand, who was then found dead in his cell. The operation that took down AlphaBay was...
On July 5, CCN reported that popular darknet market AlphaBay had been down for several hours and that a suspicious transaction led users to believe the admins pulled an exit scam. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, it’s known that the marketplace was taken down by law enforcement raids in three different countries across the globe. AlphaBay was founded back in December 2014, and got a...
Popular darknet market AlphaBay, responsible for helping Monero’s value surge in 2016 after it partnered with Oasis and started accepting the cryptocurrency, seems to be down since Tuesday night, and users are now starting to grow suspicious. While details are still scarce, various users stumbled upon a large bitcoin withdrawal coming from what many believe to be one of AlphaBay’s addresses. The...
One of the more popular drug market, which allows anyone to buy all sorts of illegal substances over tor, surprised both AlphaBay users and the ethereum community by announcing they are to accept eth from the 1st of May. An AlphaBay moderator says: “Following the popularity of the new altcoin Ethereum and the recent price hike showing a growing interest, Alphabay has made the decision to start...
In a landmark case that could see the first ever seizure of bitcoin during a criminal investigation in India, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) will look to seize about 400-500 bitcoins (approx. ₹ 21,883,567 INR or $ 327,170 USD) from the accounts of alleged drug traffickers in the country. The seizure comes as a part of a wider crackdown on drug trafficking conducted over darknet marketplaces...
A new report has found that when it comes to selling drugs online, the Netherlands is one of the leading countries selling drugs through darknet vendors. The report, Internet-facilitated drugs trade [pdf] was undertaken by the Dutch justice ministry and looked at the size, scope, and the role the Netherlands plays in the online drugs trade. The role of the Internet as an avenue for people to...
A popular darknet marketplace has announced that it has prohibited the sale of fentanyl after a dramatic rise in the number of deaths related to fentanyl overdose in the last two years. According to NBC, in Philadelphia, there has been a 636 percent increase in overdoses from the medical-grade opioid fentanyl. What is Fentanyl? Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, which belongs to the same family as...
The popular crypto-currency Monero has increased approximately 200% over the past week as darknet marketplaces have adopted the currency. The cryptocurrency, formerly BitMonero, focuses on privacy and scalability as its two main use-cases. The recent gains bring the Monero market cap to more than $20 million. Monero functions on the proof of work consensus algorithm, similar to Bitcoin. Other...
Investigations in the aftermath of the recent terror attack in Munich which saw nine people killed in a Munich shopping center on Friday will now see darknet markets under the scanner. Speaking to journalists today, Holger Muench, the chief of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police (also known as Bundeskriminalamt or BKA), has stated that the emergence of the darknet as a trading platform will see...
German media is suggesting that the gun used during the Munich terror attack was bought through the Darknet with Bitcoin. Germany is the latest European country hit by a wave of gun activity with the world still reeling in shock from the news of 18-year-old David Sonboly who killed nine people in the Olympia shopping centre in Munich on Friday. The darknet, which is a type of parallel internet...
Paris politician Bernard Debré, the deputy of the National Assembly of France and a member of the Union for a Popular Movement in Paris, has stated that Bitcoin should be banned in the city, according to a local report. Recently, the bureaucrat participated in a French-based survey, conducted by the magazine Current Values, where he discovered that drugs can be bought online with the...
It has been a tough couple of years for Ross Ulbricht and his family. In mid-2015, Ross Ulbricht learned his fate for his involvement in Silk Road (which was futilely appealed). The Silk Road, as readers may remember, was an online black market that featured everything from guns to drugs to counterfeit documents for sale. His mother, Lyn, has suffered serious health complications presumably from...
Ever since the arrest of Ross Ulbricht in San Francisco, online darknet marketplaces have remained a formidable means by which individuals can procure illegal goods. Authorities, well-aware, have investigated and made arrests in the time since Ulbricht’s trial. During that time, discussion has increased regarding the actual anonymity provided by the darknet. As has been proven more than once...
A German court has sentenced a young man to seven years' juvenile detention for running a multi-million-euro online drug business from his bedroom in his mother’s apartment, according to The Guardian, the London, U.K.-based newspaper. The man sold nearly one ton of drugs on the Darknet and the open Internet, taking payment in bitcoin and delivering drugs by registered mail. Police described the...
Note: the following interview was conducted with Bytecoin developer Harry Ullman via e-mail, as a recorded audio interview was beyond the privacy considerations of the Bytecoin development team. The author does not currently possess any Bytecoin. When did you discover Bitcoin? Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that I’m one of the first people who discovered Bitcoin from Satoshi’s whitepaper. But I...
A recent series of busts has shaken the world of dark net weapons commerce. A six-month joint investigation between law enforcement in Australia and the United States, which involved law enforcement going undercover as weapons dealers, has resulted in 17 arrests internationally. In September 2014, the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified a 33-year-old US-based dark net seller of...
Last year, a Swiss art group called !Mediengruppe Bitnik created a robot to shop on Agora, which is currently the largest Darknet market. They gave the bot $100 per week in bitcoins and programmed it to randomly buy items. It bought a wide variety of things, which were delivered to the group's gallery in Switzerland, adding to the exhibit. The exhibition gained more and more publicity until the...
The federal judge in charge of the tremendous Silk Road trial has been facing several online threats revealed during the previous days. The Darknet has posted leaked personal information and calls to "swat" her home. Also read: Judge Rejects Ross Ulbricht Silk Road Defense On a Technicality Dissatisfied with the judge's rejection of the arguments put forward by Ulbricht's defense , who...