Two major dark net marketplaces have been shut down, Europol reports. In a joint operation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Dutch National Police, AlphaBay and Hansa have been take down.
News about the closure of AlphaBay came out in the begging of the month but authorities have revealed on Thursday that it was part of a much larger operation. Shutting down AlphaBay was a strategic move in order to force users to move to other markets, specifically Hansa. By the time AlphaBay was shutdown, Hansa was already take over by the Dutch Police, who for a month ran the website in order to acquire valuable information.
The largest dark net marketplaces
Dark Web marketplaces are known to trade all kinds of illegal products, such as drugs, weapons, malware, etc. Those marketplaces are not easily accessed as they are hosted on the Dark Web, which makes it difficult for authorities to take them down. AlphaBay and Hansa were one of the biggest markets out there with AlphaBay reportedly having over 200 000 users and 40 000 vendors prior to the shutdown. Europol reports that there were around 250 000 listings for illegal drugs and toxic chemicals, as well as over 100 000 listings for stolen or fraudulent identifications and access devices, malware, other hacking tools, and firearms. Hansa on the other hand, took the third place and was dealing in similar numbers.
One of the most sophisticated take down operations in the history of fighting cyber crime
The take down strategy has been well thought out and has been successful. “This involved taking covert control of Hansa under Dutch judicial authority a month ago, which allowed Dutch police to monitor the activity of users without their knowledge, and then shutting down AlphaBay during the same period. It meant the Dutch police could identify and disrupt the regular criminal activity on Hansa but then also sweep up all those new users displaced from AlphaBay who were looking for a new trading platform. In fact they flocked to Hansa in their droves, with an eight-fold increase in the number of new members of Hansa recorded immediately following the shutdown of AlphaBay”, Europol reports in a statement.
On the 5th of July, reports about the arrest of a possible AlphaBay admin surfaced along with the news about the take down of the marketplace. The FBI and DEA had managed to identify the creator of AlphaBay and arrested him in Thailand. He reportedly committed suicide while in custody. The site was taken down and servers were seized in the Canada and the Netherlands. All AlphaBay users flooded to other marketplaces. Going to Hansa proved to be a big mistake for dark web marketplace users as AlphaBay was purposely shut down to make users flock Hansa.
Two weeks prior to the shutdown of AlphaBay, Hansa was infiltrated by the Dutch authorities. In an investigation led by the Dutch Police, along with the help of Bitdefender and Europol, servers were seized in three European countries and two administrators were arrested. The three European countries, the Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania, aided in the investigation and on the 20th of June 2017, Hansa was taken over and was operating under authority’s control for a month. In the weeks leading up to the announcement of the closing of these two marketplaces, authorities obtained information about vendors and buyers, including high value targets and delivery addresses.
Users are now flooding DreamMarket
Now that two of the biggest three marketplaces have been shutdown, users are migrating to DreamMarket, another marketplace providing the same services. Reportedly, their listings for drugs have increased from 150 to around 800. Since a similar situation has occurred with users migrating to Hansa after AlphaBay was taken down, marketplace users are panicking. Some speculate that the operation is much bigger than what was first reported and that DreamMarket is already under the control of the authority.
References
Massive blow to criminal Dark Web activities after globally coordinated operation. Europol
AlphaBay, Hansa Shut, but Drug Dealers Flock to Dark Web DreamMarket. NBC News
Authorities Take Down Hansa Dark Web Market, Confirm AlphaBay Takedown. BleepingComputer
Feds Seize AlphaBay and Hansa Markets in Major Dark-Web Bust. The Hacker News