Untangling cyber-crime(Photo: Jerry Mosemak)
Police around the globe shut down dozens of underground cyber marketplaces that dealt in drugs, weapons and other illegal goods in a massive operation this week to disrupt criminals operating on the "Dark Web."
Police in 17 countries arrested at least 17 website administrators, vendors and cybercriminals as part of the operation that targeted cyber storefronts where vendors put illegal goods on display much like Amazon or eBay sell legal goods.
The sites hide from law enforcement on the "Dark Web" by using The Onion Router, or TOR, an underground computer network that relays cyber communications through at least three separate computers to disguise the Internet addresses of its users. Domain names for websites on the TOR network end with .onion.
Law enforcement agencies from Europe, the U.S. and Canada, working from Europol's coordination center in the Netherlands, seized the servers that hosted the illegal marketplaces and took control of more than 400 .onion domains. The marketplaces knocked offline include SR2, Hydra, RepAAA, Hidden Empire, Cloud Nine, Black Market and Cannabis Road, Pandora, Blue Sky and Golden Nugget, Europol said. Police dubbed the operation "Onymous," the antonym of anonymous.
Police also seized cash, bitcoin, drugs, gold and silver.
In Ireland, the international investigation lead to the arrest of two men and the seizure of illegal drugs, including Ecstasy and LSD, worth $224,000, Ireland's Garda National said. The police also seized computers from which they able to access bitcoin accounts related to the drug sales and customer lists that they will share with law enforcement agencies around the world, police said. Information found during the arrests also lead to offshore bank accounts in Switzerland, Belize, Poland and other countries, the police said.
"The fact that such a significant vendor has been arrested in the presence of an encrypted but open computer with address lists for customers all over the world will be of significant interest to many global law enforcement agencies who specialise in Darknet investigations," the Irish police said in a statement.
In Britain, police arrested six people, including suspected web administrators of the online drug marketplace Silk Road 2.0 and vendors who sold illicit items on the Dark Web sites. Police also seized computer equipment.
"Simultaneously, partners from the European Cybercrime Centre – acting on intelligence developed by US counterparts - took out technical infrastructure which is key to the hosting of illegal market places on the dark web," the National Crime Agency said in a statement.
The websites are "vital criminal infrastructures that are supporting serious organized crime," Troels Oerting, assistant director of Europol's European Cybercrime Center, said.
"We are not just removing these services from the open Internet," he said. "This time we have also hit services on the Darknet using TOR, where, for a long time, criminals have considered themselves beyond reach. We can now show that they are neither invisible nor untouchable."
Posters on DeepDotWeb, an internet forum that focuses on the underground marketplaces, began noting a series of Dark Web shutdowns on Thursday.
"No doubt that the 6th of November 2014 will be remembered as one the darkest days in the Dark Net Markets history," the site's administrator wrote, noting that at least four sites had been seized.
Users who tried to access the sites found a legal notice from the U.S. Department of Justice, Homeland Security Investigations and European law enforcement agencies.
"This hidden site has been seized," the notice said.
Hadley Malcolm talks to reporter Donna Leinwand Leger on her Dark Web investigative series about how hackers sell credit card information online. From a September 5, 2014 report. (News, USA TODAY)
Video TranscriptAutomatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)
00:03 I am having Malcolm with USA today and joined by
00:05 Donna linemen Leger the reporter behind our dark web. Series today's
00:10 story looks at how incredibly easy it is. For criminals and
00:14 hackers to post your financial information for sale on underground website.
00:20 Dot talked about how they are able to do this and
00:23 what he's Carter forms -- Isn't this actually starts the second
00:29 you swipe your credit card to a point of sale system.
00:34 -- any kind of retail store or restaurants or even if
00:38 he used it on line. So they are criminal gangs mostly
00:42 operating out of Russia and Eastern Europe. You have malicious software
00:47 they use that software to infiltrate computer systems. In these different
00:52 retail stores. And when you swipe your card it captures that
00:56 information. The card never even have to leave your hand for
01:00 them to get their hands on your data. So once they
01:05 have the data that what are they doing with Hitler days
01:07 ago. So they collect this data and then the that computer
01:13 software that they are using sends all the data back to
01:17 man. In Russia or Eastern Europe or wherever they're located. They
01:22 look through that data they put it together and now they've
01:25 got your credit card number at the expiration date. Even number
01:29 that's on the back of New York card that verification number
01:33 that lets them use the credit card online. They compile all
01:37 of that data into bundles and then they tested to see
01:41 that the credit cards are valid and they put them for
01:44 sale. On secret underground web sites. How much does this information
01:51 sell more of you knew who is buying it what happens
01:55 to -- you want eight. Still in the price is for
02:00 the credit card data bear is there a couple of factors
02:03 one is supply. When there's a time of credit card numbers
02:07 for San obviously the prices going to be lowered just like
02:11 anything it's availability. Also freshness is a factor so the second
02:17 you find out your credit card has been used in a
02:20 fraudulent way. You're going to canceling -- gonna call your bank
02:23 and cancel your credit card. So the cyber criminals know they
02:27 only have perhaps one month of your billing cycle to use
02:31 your credit card to go on a shopping spree. So that
02:34 the fresher the cards the more they sell war and of
02:38 course the cyber criminals know this. They also -- things like
02:42 your credit limit. They can run a test on your card
02:45 and use software to figure out how much you know what
02:48 your card and how much of your balance is left. And
02:52 then they will take the higher balance cards so say you
02:55 haven't charged very much that month and you've got a thousand
02:58 dollars left -- your credit card. That card is gonna sell
03:01 for a lot of money because. They can use that credit
03:05 card to go on a nice being flat TVs -- have
03:08 shopping spree. Can anything be done about this this seems like
03:13 a pretty huge. Underground business what can we do about it.
03:18 It's really -- tricky problem for law enforcement because these cyber
03:23 criminals work on something called the onion router which is also
03:26 known -- tour. And this is a parallel Internet. -- --
03:30 is different -- computers to balance their messages around the world
03:35 through multiple computers so law enforcement can tell. Where this cyber
03:41 criminal is they can't tell where message originates or where it
03:44 ends. So it's really hard for law enforcement suits you. Track
03:49 them down and secondly. Because many of these that criminals are
03:53 operating in countries where the US doesn't have extradition treaties. If
03:58 they even find out who they are it's hard for them
04:00 to get them prosecuted in the US since then it comes
04:04 down to the consumer. And then. What you say the consumer
04:09 does. Consumers have a lot of ways that. They can protect
04:13 themselves the first thing that they can do it set up
04:16 an alert on their credit cards so that if any one
04:19 charges anything. They'll get an email message so you know that
04:23 if you get a charge and you're a home asleep in
04:26 bed. If you didn't charge anything that you can call your
04:30 credit card company right away and cancel your card what are
04:33 the things -- -- cyber criminals do you. If they run
04:36 attacks it will take 101000 cards at a time. And charge
04:41 a really small amount sometimes say the price of a cup
04:44 of coffee at Starbucks so it doesn't raise any flags that
04:48 banks. But that's how they see if your card is valid
04:51 and if it works but if you see that charging you
04:53 know you didn't make it. You can call your content your
04:57 bank and cancel the card right away. Thanks so much Donna
05:01 for joining us and you can look for more on this
05:03 series -- USA today dot com.
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