In addition to serving the transportation needs of Russia (as well as Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela), the shadow fleet forms quintessential “gray zone” aggression, causing tangible harm that targeted countries can do little to punish. If countries do try to block dark ships from their waters, or escort them away, it could prompt retaliation and escalation by Russia. Beginning in September 2021, Abacus Market has established itself as one of the leading dark web marketplaces. After AlphaBay closed, Abacus Market took its place as the world’s largest underground darknet marketplaces.
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However, the Oxen Privacy Tech Foundation (OPTF), which developed the “LokiNet” dark net as well as the end-to-end encryption messenger “Session,” saw an overwhelming influx of Iranian users since September 2022. The OPTF worked diligently to incorporate the support Persian (Farsi) script into the Session service and support connectivity from various VPNs circumventing Iranian firewalls (Figure 3). Windward’s AI-powered solution allows stakeholders to make real-time, predictive intelligence-driven decisions, providing a 360° view of the maritime ecosystem. When we originally released this report much earlier in the war, the cleared fleet number was 82 percent. That’s a significant decrease in vessels that can be legitimate trading partners and highlights the importance of actionable visibility into a volatile and highly adaptive situation.
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In an article published that same month, Reuters highlighted the “crackdown,” where the Russian government blocked access to the Torproject.org, a climax in a multiple year campaign of enforcing restrictions for VPNs 5. While the top five flags for gray fleet vessels remained the same as in our last report earlier in the war, the numbers within the top five have greatly shifted. As of March 2023, the leading flag for gray fleet vessels is the Panama flag (last report, it was ranked fifth). Another interesting thing to note is the fact that Russia was #1 in our last report, and has now dropped to #3. With the emergence of regulations and the price cap on Russian crude oil and oil products, there are now effectively three groups competing for charterers’ deals.
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The marketplace was taken down in 2022 by international law enforcement after its servers, located in Germany, were seized. Hydra had about 17 million customers and more than 19,000 accounts selling a variety of things, according to German authorities. The Norwegian Coastal Administration told me it has seen significant changes in traffic with crude oil tankers from Russia through the Baltic Sea.32Email to the author, November 29, 2023. This route originates in Russia’s Baltic ports of Saint Petersburg, Primorsk, and Kaliningrad and ends in the North Sea, from where the vessels travel to their final destinations.
- A fortnight earlier one of OMG’s main competitors, Kraken, parked a bus painted with its logo across two lanes of the Russian capital’s Novy Arbat thoroughfare, blocking traffic for over an hour before the authorities were able to remove it.
- While Iran’s extreme tactics carry much notoriety, internet censorship is well known in many countries throughout the Arabian Peninsula.
- There was a 22 percent increase in the monthly average of BPD carried by the dark fleet after the start of the war.
- Seen from that perspective, fires, explosions, collisions, mechanical failures, and oil spills involving dark vessels are accidental harm.
- In addition to counterfeit merchandise, MGM Grand Market offers access to stolen credit card information, compromised bank accounts, and other financial fraud-related services.
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Saheed Aremu passionately advocates for digital privacy and cybersecurity in the modern digital age. As one of PrivacySavvy’s resident VPN experts, he guides readers on protecting their online information and anonymity. Saheed earned his degree in Technology and Ethics from the University of Lagos in Nigeria. Since then, he has dedicated his career to writing extensively about crucial infosec, data privacy, and cybersecurity topics. When he’s not empowering PrivacySavvy’s readers to take control of their online security, Saheed enjoys distance running, playing chess, and exploring the latest open-source software advancements.
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He said the proceeds from ransomware attacks, as well as investment schemes, violent extremism and child sexual abuse material, are also being laundered through Russian darknet markets. On New Year’s Eve people in Moscow spotted what looked like an up-and-coming tech startup projecting its logo onto the sides of various buildings. But in fact it was a guerrilla marketing stunt promoting OMG, a darknet marketplace selling heroin, mephedrone, marijuana, and everything else in between. The more a nation invests in border security, the more attractive it becomes to traffickers, because greater risks entail greater rewards. But small-time producers already situated within a country’s borders can saturate the market.
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It could be a hacked device, or an innocent oversight from the billboard’s operator, but there’s no denying that Russia is a far friendlier place for darknet markets to operate than many countries. That the country is profiting from a wide range of crypto transactions to get around strict sanctions placed upon the country following its illegal invasion of Ukraine could also be a factor. And it doesn’t hurt that, reportedly, the operators of the market support Russia’s war and have even gone so far as to support Russian-allied troops with crypto donations.
The darknet markets also act as hubs for the sharing of precursor chemicals, lab equipment and video tutorials that have created a vast network of amateur chemists churning out mephedrone nationwide. Launched in September 2022, Torzon Market operates on the Tor network and features over 11,600 illegal products, including drugs and hacking tools. Torzon offers a premium account option for additional benefits and is valued at approximately $15 million, accepting payments in Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR). Some dark web marketplaces even host content that’s not just illegal but extremely harmful, so it’s really important to understand the risks before diving in. Some are looking for illegal stuff they can’t buy elsewhere, like drugs or counterfeit documents. 2022 saw a decline in revenue from the previous year for darknet markets and fraud shops.
Hydra has been an active darknet marketplace catering to the Russian Tor community since the Silk Road days. It resurfaced with a new Tor URL in the summer of 2016, less two years after law enforcement claimed it had arrested and charged the 26 year old market admin and Hungarian resident in November 2014 as part of Operation Onymous. Hydra is a centralized marketplace featuring many individual vendor-shops similar to RAMP with offerings including drugs, digital goods, and even mobile phone SIM cards. TRM Labs calculated that in the eight months since Hydra had been shut down, the new cluster of darknet markets had amassed $820 million in crypto currency deposits.
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Telegram channels supplement traditional onion sites, blurring lines between the dark web sites and more mainstream communication tools. According to the data from Bitfury’s data firm Crystal Blockchain, currently, Hydra’s bitcoin addresses hold more than 521 BTC, worth over $18 million. In August 2022, The New Statesman published an article about how the Russian invasion in Ukraine was “reshaping the dark web” and that “the geopolitical tensions that have changed the world are also changing the dark web” 3. Although this article was published during the first six months of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the perception of geopolitical tensions transcending to the dark web is apparent. The Moscow Regional Court found Moiseyev and the 15 accomplices guilty of running or being part of an organized criminal group, as well as drug manufacturing and trafficking. The Moscow regional chapter of the Prosecutor General’s Office said that Moiseyev and 15 of his accomplices ran an organized criminal group in Russia and Belarus between 2015 and October 2018.
- As one graphic illustration of the dangers presented by Genesis Market, OFAC cited a June 2021 breach of a U.S. company’s computer system by hackers who then were able to steal that company’s software engine and source code using a cookie purchased through Genesis Market.
- The market is also known for its listings related to financial fraud, such as phishing tools and stolen credit card information.
- It maintains a very strict level of user verification and integration with an official Telegram account to provide real-time updates to users.
- Cryptomarket participants have been shown to have a minimal reaction, or one that is temporary, to overtly large shows of force and to have the ability to adapt through displacement techniques.
Hacking vendors commonly offered to illegally access online accounts of the buyer’s choosing. In this way, buyers could select their victims and hire professional hackers to gain access to the victims’ communications and take over the victims’ accounts. The Justice Department announced today the seizure of Hydra Market (Hydra), the world’s largest and longest-running darknet market.
Dark Web Illegal Activities Stats
As of 2020, nearly 57% of the dark web was estimated to contain illegal content, including violence and extremist platforms. The two charts below show which markets Hydra’s previous counterparties used the most in both of those two time periods. The color of the lines show the former Hydra users’ category of activity and the thickness of the lines show the proportion of their activity flowing to new markets after Hydra was shut down.
Transactions on Hydra were conducted in cryptocurrency and Hydra’s operators charged a commission for every transaction conducted on Hydra. From 2015 to 2018, Hydra was one of the largest and most notorious darknet marketplaces, known for the trade of illegal goods and services, including drugs, stolen data, counterfeit currencies, and hacking tools. There has been a groundbreaking shift in the global drug trade, pioneered in Russia and now spreading globally. Unlike traditional drug trafficking models, this system leverages darknet markets and cryptocurrency for anonymous transactions, allowing buyers to retrieve drugs from hidden physical locations, or “dead drops,” rather than direct exchanges.
This case also highlights the ongoing international efforts to dismantle these cybercrime marketplaces that facilitate illegal activities. A Moscow court has sentenced Stanislav Moiseyev, the alleged mastermind behind the notorious Hydra Market, to life in prison and a fine of 4 million roubles. This notorious marketplace remained active from 2015 to 2018, reigning as the world’s largest dark web marketplace before its dismantling by German and US authorities in 2022. Freshtools is a unique marketplace in that it does not only provide the stolen data, but it allows criminals to purchase MaaS which can cause further damage to the victims. It is one of the most active and up to date markets and always provides new and updated malware and data.
