The Typology of Illicit Telegram Channels

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Cybercriminals seem to always be looking for new and innovative ways to commit their crimes more efficiently. In the past, the dark web and parts of the deep web were some of the most common places where you can find cybercriminals committing their schemes. However, many criminals have moved over to more secure online messaging […]

The Cybercrime Assembly Line

Light background with a graphic on the right side with three threat actors (one is rolling a large coin, the other is breaking into a computer, and another is interacting with login credentials. There is a dark yellow oval in the top left with the white text "Blog: and blue text below "The Cybercrime Assembly LIne."

Back in 2018, the Center for Strategic and International Studies came to the conclusion that cybercrime cost the world an approximate $600 billion annually, nearly 1% of global GDP. The cyber threat landscape has been constantly evolving, and the amount of money lost to cybercrime has only been increasing. According to IBM, the cost of […]

ToRReZ Market Shutting Down

ToRReZ Market Shutting Down

Two months after White House Market’s retirement, comes another surprise; ToRReZ, currently the second largest market by the total number of listings, has announced they will be shutting down. After close to two years of operation, on December 17th, 2021, purchasing will be officially disabled as well as a few other essential market functions. ToRReZ […]

White House Market Is Officially Retiring

White House Market Is Officially Retiring

Updated: November 26th, 2021 As the article below is a bit out of date, here’s a breakdown of most of the large changes in the dark web marketplace scene: Empire Market exit scammed in August 2020 DarkMarket was sized in January 2021 Yellow Brick exited a few days after DarkMarket BigBlue was seized by Interpol in April […]

Slilpp Users Scammed Following Darknet Market Takedown

The US Department of Justice has taken down Slilpp, following an international collaboration between different law enforcement agencies. Slilpp emerged in 2012 and was one of the largest marketplaces for stolen credentials. According to specialized media, the FBI seized the website and placed a warning on the website. Although it has only recently been publicized […]

Cancel Culture Reaches the Criminal Underground

media

In our ransomware report from late 2020, we explained how some ransomware groups were offering their services to others. Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) has become popular and generated much discussion on the criminal underground. It represents an easy and accessible way for malicious actors to earn a few dollars. In our report, we mentioned that ransomware groups […]

0-Day No Longer Best Kept Secrets On The Internet

best kept secret

A 0-day is a software vulnerability that is unknown to its software maker. 0-days are perhaps the most valuable type of exploits out there simply because they can be used with an incredibly high chance of success, and often for an extended period of time. With no knowledge of a flaw, a software maker is […]

Malicious Actors Show Increased Interest in Information Theft

The evolution of malicious actors over the last four decades has shown that greed is greatly responsible for most of the cybersecurity incidents we keep witnessing. While in the 1980s virus authors sought to experiment, and erase data, the same breed of malicious actors now seek, in many cases, mostly one thing: information.  Credential Stealing […]

Major Hack Jeopardizes Future of Dark Web Marketplaces

dark web

Over the past week, an unknown malicious actor launched perhaps the biggest phishing attack against dark web marketplaces. This attack created havoc among their participants, and further questioned the very business model of dark web marketplaces. What happened, why is it significant, and what does this mean for the near future? The Hacking of Dark […]

Private forums increase transmission of knowledge by malicious actors

transmission-of-knowledge

Malicious actors use online discussion forums to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, often out of the public’s eye. In this blog, we study the transmission of knowledge that takes place on public and private forums. This leads us to question how the participant selection mechanisms of forums influence the transmission of knowledge. This transmission is […]