Beneath the Dark Web: Excavating the Layers of Cybercrime's Underground Economy

Abstract

The Dark Web or DarkNet has attracted both considerable media and scholarly attention. This forms part of a broader tradition of analyzing relatively open cybercriminal marketplaces and forums. With the aid of data collected over a 7-year period, the focus of this paper is to help demarcatebeyond the Dark Web alone -all the layers within the world of profit-driven cybercrime. These include: 1) the top layer, which is the most open forums and marketplaces, whether Dark Web or otherwise; 2) the middle layer of more closely vetted forums; 3) the bottom layer of even smaller and more closed groupings; 4) the molten core, which is centered on the offline organization of cybercrime. The purpose of this analysis is to identify key aspects of the underground economy which warrant further scholarly attention, and to suggest possible approaches to engage with these subjects going forward.

How are the Underground Economy Levels in Indonesia?

“…The results of this study are in accordance with the existing theory where when there is an increase in inflation, then with the same nominal amount, the number of items that can be purchased is less [27] [28]. Therefore, when there is an increase in inflation, the demand for currency will be even higher because the demand for holding money in the society is getting higher.…”

A Methodology For Large-Scale Identification of Related Accounts in Underground Forums

“…Finally, to foster reproducibility, we make our code publicly available. 5 Note that, in order to reproduce our results, researchers must contact the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre and request access to the CrimeBB dataset used in our experiments. 6…”

“…Underground communities can be divided into two main categories, depending on the types of goods and services traded, the anonymity factor, and the difficulty to reach and join them [5]. On the one hand, markets and forums on the Dark Web specialize in the exchange and discussion related to illegal goods (e.g., drugs, weapons, or child abuse material).…”

Countering Distrust in Illicit Online Networks: The Dispute Resolution Strategies of Cybercriminals

“…This is one of the main reasons why public forums dedicated to hacking and cybercrime topics have provided such a fertile and popular ground for data collection (see, among others, Hutchings & Holt, 2015;Holt et al, 2015;Dupont et al, 2016). They are the most easily observable layer of cybercriminal organisation, and are publicly accessible (see Lusthaus, 2019). They provide access to the online interactions of thousands of online offenders, who use them to learn new skills, trade in criminal products or services, or seek out potential co-offenders (Leukfeldt, Kleemans, & Stol, 2017b).…”