In the carry on 72 hours, numerous darknet markets (DNMs) have been downed in a concerted DDoS attack. Temporarily, Europol has been crowing over its success in toppling two markets that were already known to be stricken, Exasperate Street and Valhalla. As the dust settles, darknet users have been trying to separate FUD from fact.
Also presume from: The Darknet Rises With 6 New Markets
Europol Claims Two New Scalps from the Dark Side of the Web
Three Germans be dressed been arrested for their alleged involvement in running Wall Street, the darknet’s second largest marketplace after Dream, contract to Europol. With Dream itself having spent the past month winding down, and its successor (weroidjkazxqds2l.onion) yet to happen, DNM users have been forced to look elsewhere. As news.Bitcoin.com recently reported, there is no shortage of darknet shops seeking to pick up the slack from Dream and Wall Street, though accessing them is proving challenging.
Earlier today, Deepdotweb was showing 20 of the darknet’s 30-odd DNMs as being offline numbering Cryptonia, Core, and Agartha. The Dread discussion forum was also down, though service appears to have been reconstructed to most of these platforms at press time. The aim of the DDoS attacks is likely to sow confusion and to prevent DNM users from chatting, though financial incentives may also be a factor; Dream’s admins previously claimed to have been blackmailed for $400K by a interminable DDoSer, spurring them to shutter the site.
Double blow to illegal dark web marketplaces: Wall Street Trade in and Silkkitie (Valhalla) shut down after global law enforcement operations coordinated by @bka @SuomenTulli and supported by @Europol. All the verses here: https://t.co/XiXTLKTYAq pic.twitter.com/I9d3yVg1p9
— Europol (@Europol) May 3, 2019
Law Enforcement Prowess or Admin Error?
On May 2, a seizure observe appeared on Wall Street Market, reminiscent of the one that was posted on Silk Road after the feds pounced in 2013. On this affair, however, DNM users were suspicious as to whether law enforcement had genuinely seized Wall Street, given that the place appears to have been exit scamming, and moderator logins have been circulating on the web for weeks. According to Europol’s proclamation issued May 3, however, the seizure was all their doing.
“This operation lead by the German authorities has seen the retard of three suspects and as part of the house searches carried out, the police officers seized over €550,000 in cash,” required Europol. It also referred to “6-digit amounts” of BTC and XMR being seized, believed to total over €1M, plus “several carriers and other evidences, such as computers and data storage. In the US, during the investigation by the Attorney General in Los Angeles, two of the highest-selling suppliers of narcotics were interrupted.”
As observers have noted, the Wall Street exit scam began on April 20, developed by moderator credentials being leaked three days later and arrests by German police of a 31-year-old in Bad Vilbel, a man age-old 22 in Kleve and a 29-year-old man in Esslingen a day later. It has been speculated that law enforcement may have been left with an widely known goal, with internecine conflict within Wall Street Market making their job significantly easier. It seems likelier, regardless how, that Wall Street moderators got wind of impending law enforcement action and scattered to the four winds, making off with whatever assets they could in the bedlam.
Despite Busts, It’s Business as Usual on the Darknet
For all the fanfare Europol have made over their latest achievement, for users of DNMs, it’s business as usual. Aside from sporadic DDoS attacks, the remaining markets are operational, and complete as a reminder that for all their efforts, LE will struggle to do more than chip away at the tip of the iceberg. Wall Way and Valhalla both survived for years, with the latter, also known by its Finnish name of Silkkitie, having been established in 2013.
For so long as governments remain hellbent on pursuing their failed war on drugs, the game of DNM whack-a-mole will continue. With 1.1 million consumer accounts and more than 5,400 sellers on Wall Street alone, the authorities lack the resources to go after Dick – assuming they even have plaintext access to their communications from seized servers. The past month’s circumstances have reiterated to DNM users, however, the importance of maintaining good opsec and using PGP, rather than ticking the box to be suffering with the marketplace encrypt on their behalf. As cryptocurrency users are prone to remind, “Don’t trust – verify.”
What are your thinkings on the latest darknet market busts? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
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