A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia has charged two Costa Rican residents for illegally selling opioids on the darknet. Originally from the United States, David Brian Pate is a darknet vendor who along with Costa Rican pharmacist Jose Luis Hou sold drugs worth 23,903 Bitcoin (BTC) — approximately $270 million — to darknet customers. The jury charged Pate and Hou for conspiring to distribute controlled substances, distributing controlled substances, conspiring to import these substances and conspiring to launder money and money instruments. Selling drugs on SilkRoad and AlphaBay According to the statement published by the Department of …

Digital intelligence firm Cellebrite has launched its “Cellebrite Crypto Tracer” solution. The new offering is powered by CipherTrace and aims to trace illicit cryptocurrencies involved in money laundering, terrorism, drugs, human trafficking, weapon sales and ransomware schemes. The suite of tools will be available to investigators, analysts and non-technical agents who want to lawfully obtain evidence and trace criminals who use cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC) through the darknet. Citing figures from an Oxford University study, Cellebrite states that an estimated $76 billion worth of illegal activities involve Bitcoin. Curating millions of information references to trace transactions The Cellebrite Crypto Tracer …

Seven years ago, agents from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation busted into a San Francisco Public Library to arrest Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind the Silk Road. Launched in 2011, the Silk Road was the first modern darknet market where anonymous users could purchase illicit drugs, weapons and other illegal goods using Bitcoin (BTC). Although the Silk Road was shut down in 2013 following Ulbricht’s arrest, many individuals still use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to purchase illicit drugs from darknet markets. For example, a recent press release issued by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS, states that …

The MGM Resort suffered a massive data breach in 2019 that left 142 million hotel guests exposed. A hacker is now selling the stolen database for roughly $2,900. According to the information revealed by ZDNet, a dark web marketplace claims that data from 142,479,937 MGM hotel guests are on sale. Preferred payment is denominated in Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR). MGM Resorts confirmed the data breach, stating that they’re aware of the scope of this previously reported incident from 2019. No financial data was leaked However, according to the research, the cybercriminal did not leak any sensitive data from the …

A recent study revealed that over 15 billion credentials are in circulation via the dark web, representing a 300% increase since 2018. Available information ranges from network access credentials, banking login data, and even streaming services accounts from Netflix. According to research conducted by the cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows, part of the leaked data is even circulating for free. The report warns that the reason that so many account credentials are available online is that people are using non-complex passwords that can be easily brute-forced using hacking tools. Access to corporate networks as an open door for ransomware attacks Among …

In addition to the obvious advantages in the form of anonymity, accessibility, ease of use and low cost of transactions, cryptocurrencies have some serious drawbacks that impede their global adoption. The main one is the connection between crypto and crime. Everyone who has studied this topic even superficially knows that Bitcoin (BTC) still remains a popular payment method among scammers and criminals on the darknet. Cryptocurrencies are very convenient tools for money laundering, evading taxes and cheating investors. Today, I will talk about the most famous cryptocurrency pyramids, from which millions of investors suffered and whose activities amounted to billions …

LocalBitcoins, a major peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchange, has purportedly managed to significantly cut the amount of criminal funds on its platform in 2020. The P2P platform has seen a decline of over 70% in transactions from darknet markets between September 2019 and May 2020, LocalBitcoins claims. Jukka Blomberg, chief marketing officer at LocalBitcoins, told Cointelegraph that the drop comes in response to Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer regulations adopted by the platform in September 2019. The calculations are based on blockchain analysis by major crypto analytics firm Elliptic as well as LocalBitcoins’ own “clustering tools,” the firm said. The …

Telegram, a major privacy-focused messaging app, has suffered a data leak that exposed some personal data of its users on the darknet. A database containing the personal data of millions of Telegram users has been posted on a darknet forum. The issue was first reported by Russian-language tech publication Kod.ru on Tuesday. According to the report, the database contains phone numbers and unique Telegram user IDs. It remains unclear exactly how many users' data was leaked while the database file is about 900 megabytes. About 40% of entries in the database should be relevant Telegram has reportedly acknowledged the existence …

A think-tank spanning Indian law enforcement, academic institutions, startups, and research and development organizations has begun working to bolster India’s darknet policing capabilities. The initiative has seen roughly one dozen "problem statements" identified and informed by police and central agencies distributed among 120 academic and research institutions. The program is expected to produce a diverse range of potential solutions and strategies for expanding the deep web policing prowess of Indian law enforcement. India’s Narcotics Control Bureau has made numerous arrests targeting darknet narcotics and black market pharmaceutical syndicates in recent months following the agency’s participation in the global "Operation Trance" …

Per a new report released by digital-asset intelligence firm CipherTrace on June 2, the value of ill-gotten funds siphoned through cryptocurrency crimes over the first five months of the year stands at a whopping $1.4 billion, thus making 2020 a potentially active year in regard to cryptocurrency-related thefts, hacks and fraud. The report goes on to state that if things continue at the same rate, the total volume of stolen crypto for 2020 has the potential to get close to reaching the $4.5-billion mark set in 2019. Criminals appear to be capitalizing on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to target unsuspecting …

New research by cybersecurity firm, Cyble Research Team, revealed that on May 29, data for more than 80,000 credit cards were put up for sale on the dark web. The data from these cards appears to have been gathered from various countries around the world. According to the announcement, the data leak involved credit card details from various countries, such as the United States (33K), France (14K), Australia (5K), United Kingdom (5K), Canada (2K), Singapore (1.2 K) and India (1.3K). They include both Visa and Mastercard, according to the information collected by Cyble. The price of each credit card, which …

May 19, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) awarded several federal agencies in the United States, whose joint probe led to the seizure of $22 million worth of cryptocurrency from the darkenet operators. 12-16% cashout fee This is an annual award whereby FinCEN recognizes law enforcement agencies for using Bank Secrecy Act reporting to successfully pursue and prosecute criminal investigations. The investigation involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations, United States Postal Inspection Service, and United States Secret Service: “Investigative results identified dark web vendors sending illicitly earned Bitcoin with a physical receiving address via an encrypted email to conduct …