Cybercrime has been a growing threat for decades, ever since the Internet became widespread. Some news reports suggest that nearly 80% of organizations in the USA were the victims of an online attack in 2020 alone. For this reason, you must understand what the capabilities of people online are, so you can try to combat them. This article will help you understand the current state of dark web cybercrime, a specific unmoderated area of the Internet. For several reasons, it is not well policed, and by the end of this piece, you should have a solid understanding of why.
What Has the Dark Web Been Doing?
The dark web was at first an area of the Internet intended to help governments communicate in secret. Unfortunately, the dark web sprung up after people turned those capabilities to other purposes. Examples of the services people have sold on the dark web include IT-competent people selling tools to assist others:
- Credit Card or PayPal Accounts: Credentials to PayPal or Credit Card accounts get bought and sold in exchange for a part of the balance on them.
- Infrastructure Rental: People can rent access to resources that allow them to commit DDoS attacks on others.
- Ransomware: Applications that allow someone to commit a ransomware attack get sold on a subscription basis.
- Server Access: People buy access to specific servers that the seller has hijacked.
Despite its negative side, several legitimate services also exist on the dark web. Some individuals seek to use this infrastructure to gain a level of private access to servers. They avoid organizations such as Facebook, whom they believe have too much access to individuals’ data.
What Are Countries Doing About the Dark Web Cybercrime?
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime division recently announced a report on cybercrime. They labeled it “Darknet Cybercrime Threats to Southeast Asia.” In this report, the UNODC discusses the dark web from the point of view of both its users and also law enforcement. They do this in an attempt to give a comprehensive breakdown of its use.
Unfortunately, arrests related to the dark web are not particularly high due to the secure nature of the interactions. Although, some individuals do make mistakes, allowing the law to catch and prosecute them. One example of a high-profile arrest is the administrator of an online sales platform called AlphaBay, arrested in 2017. They got caught after a significant act of coordination from several Southeast Asian countries. This level of cooperation, however, must be mandatory to make any headway with law enforcement.
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Where Is Cybercrime On the Rise and Why?
Southeast Asia continues to be the prominent location where cybercrime initiates in the dark web. Dark web cybersecurity laws are lax in these areas of the world, and local law enforcement is not motivated to pursue leads of this kind.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, cybercrime involving the dark web has increased a large amount. This is especially true in individuals who have had no previous experience in this area of online interaction. Due to the fears surrounding the virus, several items have been illegally sold. This includes fraudulent COVID-19 vaccines, hydroxychloroquine, and PPE.
Knowledge of TOR, or The Onion Router, is becoming more common as people assist one another. In recent years, this expansion has continued, empowering the next generation of dark web cybercrime. As cryptocurrency becomes more popular, dark web transactions have become more accessible. This is due to the anonymized nature of these dealings. BitCoin’s increased value has also encouraged the use in dark web markets. The currency’s anonymous nature offers the ability to buy or sell without being tracked. Also, with more investors in cryptocurrency, it is becoming easier to use the dark web.
Unfortunately, there is very, very little reliable or validatable data on how common the dark web is. Its private nature makes it impossible to track individuals, let alone many people using its services. In today’s world, privacy is becoming more sought-after. This is a type of dark web cybersecurity for individuals themselves. They seek out the dark web to find anonymity and freedom from real or imagined oversight from more powerful entities on the web.
What Are the Cybercrime Services in the Dark Web
Several services are available to those who make use of the dark web. Along with the services listed above, more traditional criminal activity appears there too. Drugs This is two-fold. Local forums allow individuals to buy and sell illegal narcotics using cryptocurrency. Also, those who wish to purchase pharmaceuticals otherwise available in their country often do so via the dark web. In several locations, specific prescription medicines can only be sought via illicit means. People who need them will take to the dark web to do so as they have no other options. Illegal Pornography There are several categories of illegal pornography available on the dark web.
These experience crackdowns far harder than other areas due to the harmful nature of its creation, but it continues to exist. Data Harvesting You can buy stolen data sourced from several locations on the dark web. Examples include social security numbers, a company’s internal server, or even the data from a healthcare provider. Depending on the quality and the amount of data, this may reach a significant price to some buyers looking to use the data for any purpose.
What Else Can People Do?
You should now have a solid understanding of the state of cybercrime in the world and in a position to want to learn more. If you still have concerns about cybercrime affecting you, get in contact or partner with us. Our teams are ready to converse with you about law enforcement and security services. We are happy to help you understand and protect yourself from serious web issues as they may come up. Finally, we are always at the forefront of such issues, keeping up-to-date and keeping current to assist where we can.
