Sex, Drugs, and Bitcoin: How Much Illegal Activity Is Financed Through Cryptocurrencies? *
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Internet and Drug Markets
INSIGHTS EN ISSN THE INTERNET AND DRUG MARKETS 2314-9264 The internet and drug markets 21 The internet and drug markets EMCDDA project group Jane Mounteney, Alessandra Bo and Alberto Oteo 21 Legal notice This publication of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is protected by copyright. The EMCDDA accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of the data contained in this document. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the EMCDDA’s partners, any EU Member State or any agency or institution of the European Union. Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union Freephone number (*): 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) The information given is free, as are most calls (though some operators, phone boxes or hotels may charge you). More information on the European Union is available on the internet (http://europa.eu). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2016 ISBN: 978-92-9168-841-8 doi:10.2810/324608 © European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2016 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. This publication should be referenced as: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2016), The internet and drug markets, EMCDDA Insights 21, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. References to chapters in this publication should include, where relevant, references to the authors of each chapter, together with a reference to the wider publication. For example: Mounteney, J., Oteo, A. and Griffiths, P. -
Into the Reverie: Exploration of the Dream Market
Into the Reverie: Exploration of the Dream Market Theo Carr1, Jun Zhuang2, Dwight Sablan3, Emma LaRue4, Yubao Wu5, Mohammad Al Hasan2, and George Mohler2 1Department of Mathematics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 2Department of Computer & Information Science, Indiana University - Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN 3Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Guam, Guam 4Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, AK 5Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract—Since the emergence of the Silk Road market in Onymous" in 2014, a worldwide action taken by law enforce- the early 2010s, dark web ‘cryptomarkets’ have proliferated and ment and judicial agencies aimed to put a kibosh on these offered people an online platform to buy and sell illicit drugs, illicit behaviors [5]. Law enforcement interventions such as relying on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin for anonymous trans- actions. However, recent studies have highlighted the potential for Onymous, along with exit scams and hacks, have successfully de-anonymization of bitcoin transactions, bringing into question shut down numerous cryptomarkets, including AlphaBay, Silk the level of anonymity afforded by cryptomarkets. We examine a Road, Dream, and more recently, Wall Street [6]. Despite these set of over 100,000 product reviews from several cryptomarkets interruptions, new markets have continued to proliferate. The collected in 2018 and 2019 and conduct a comprehensive analysis authors of [7] note that there appears to be a consistent daily of the markets, including an examination of the distribution of drug sales and revenue among vendors, and a comparison demand of about $500,000 for illicit products on the dark web, of incidences of opioid sales to overdose deaths in a US city. -
Honeypots: Not for Winnie the Pooh But
2018] 259 HONEYPOTS: NOT FOR WINNIE THE POOH BUT FOR WINNIE THE PEDO — LAW ENFORCEMENT’S LAWFUL USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO CATCH PERPETRATORS AND HELP VICTIMS OF CHILD EXPLOITATION ON THE DARK WEB Whitney J. Gregory* Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside itself—it only requires opportunity.1 INTRODUCTION Lawyers, doctors, teachers, politicians, and Hollywood stars—what do they all have in common? Smarts? Success? Wealth? Respect in their com- munities? Demonstrating the terrible divergence between appearance and re- ality, some members of these professions are also frequent customers and producers of child pornography. Contrary to what some may assume, child pornographers are not just antisocial, out-of-work, reclusive basement dwellers. They may be people you would least expect.2 Take, for instance, the teen heartthrob Mark Salling, who starred on Fox’s hit show Glee as handsome bad-boy Puck from 2009 to 2015. Twenty-fifteen was also the year Salling was arrested and charged * Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, J.D. Candidate, May 2019; Articles Editor, George Mason Law Review, 2018–19. This Comment is dedicated to the memory of my grandfa- ther Guido A. Ianiero. 1 George Eliot, Janet’s Repentance, in SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE 102, 146 (Harper & Bros. 1858). 2 Judges have described child pornography defendants as seemingly ordinary, even upstanding, men (and a few women). “The defendants’ professional careers [are] often highlighted, including Air Force Captain, physician, trust specialist, and teacher.” Melissa Hamilton, The Efficacy of Severe Child Pornography Sentencing: Empirical Validity or Political Rhetoric?, 22 STAN. -
Data Capture and Analysis of Darknet Markets
Data Capture & Analysis of Darknet Markets Data Capture and Analysis of Darknet Markets Australian National University Cybercrime Observatory Matthew Ball, Roderic Broadhurst1, Alexander Niven, and Harshit Trivedi March 2019 Abstract Darknet markets have been studied to varying degrees of success for several years (since the original Silk Road was launched in 2011), but many obstacles are involved which prevent a complete and systematic survey. The Australian National University’s Cybercrime Observatory has developed tools to collect and analyse data captured from the darknet (illicit cryptomarkets). This report describes, at the high level, a method for collecting, and analysing, data from specific darknet marketplaces. Examples of typical results that may be obtained from darknet markets and current limitations to the automation of data capture are breifly outlined. While the proposed solution is not error-free, it is a significant step in the direction of providing a comprehensive solution tailored for data scientists, social scientists, and anyone interested in analysing trends from darknet markets. 1 Corresponding author: Professor R.G. Broadhurst, School of Regulation and Global Givernance, College of Asia and the Pacific, email; [email protected]>. We thank the Australian Federal Police division of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the Australian Institute of Criminology, and ANU Cybercrime Observatory interns Nikita Bhatia, Paige Brown and Benjamin Donald-Wilson for their assistance with aspects of this report. 1 Introduction Illicit cryptomarkets (or darknet markets) are e-commerce style websites specializing in the sale and distribution of illicit content. Typical products offered on darknet markets include: drugs, pharmaceuticals, identity documents, malware and exploit kits, counterfeit goods, weapons, and other contraband. -
Analyzing the Darknetmarkets Subreddit for Evolutions of Tools and Trends Using LDA Topic Modeling
DIGITAL FORENSIC RESEARCH CONFERENCE Analyzing the DarkNetMarkets Subreddit for Evolutions of Tools and Trends Using LDA Topic Modeling By Kyle Porter From the proceedings of The Digital Forensic Research Conference DFRWS 2018 USA Providence, RI (July 15th - 18th) DFRWS is dedicated to the sharing of knowledge and ideas about digital forensics research. Ever since it organized the first open workshop devoted to digital forensics in 2001, DFRWS continues to bring academics and practitioners together in an informal environment. As a non-profit, volunteer organization, DFRWS sponsors technical working groups, annual conferences and forensic challenges to help drive the direction of research and development. https:/dfrws.org Digital Investigation 26 (2018) S87eS97 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Digital Investigation journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/diin DFRWS 2018 USA d Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual DFRWS USA Analyzing the DarkNetMarkets subreddit for evolutions of tools and trends using LDA topic modeling Kyle Porter Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, NTNU, Gjøvik, Norway abstract Keywords: Darknet markets, which can be considered as online black markets, in general sell illegal items such as Topic modeling drugs, firearms, and malware. In July 2017, significant law enforcement operations compromised or Latent dirichlet allocation completely took down multiple international darknet markets. To quickly understand how this affected Web crawling the markets and the choice of tools utilized by users of darknet markets, we use unsupervised topic Datamining Semantic analysis modeling techniques on the DarkNetMarkets subreddit in order to determine prominent topics and Digital forensics terms, and how they have changed over a year's time. -
The Lightning Network - Deconstructed and Evaluated
The Lightning Network - Deconstructed and Evaluated Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Anti-Terrorist Financing (ATF) professionals, especially those working in the blockchain and cryptocurrency environment, may have heard of the second layer evolution of Bitcoin's blockchain - the Lightning Network, (LN). This exciting new and rapidly deploying technology offers innovative solutions to solve issues around the speed of transaction times using bitcoin currently, but expandable to other tokens. Potentially however, this technology raises regulatory concerns as it arguably makes, (based on current technical limitations), bitcoin transactions truly anonymous and untraceable, as opposed to its current status, where every single bitcoin can be traced all the way back to its coinbase transaction1 on the public blockchain. This article will break down the Lightning Network - analyzing how it works and how it compares to Bitcoin’s current system, the need for the technology, its money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) risks, and some thoughts on potential regulatory applications. Refresher on Blockchain Before diving into the Lightning Network, a brief refresher on how the blockchain works - specifically the Bitcoin blockchain (referred to as just “Bitcoin” with a capital “B” herein) - is required. For readers with no knowledge or those wishing to learn more about Bitcoin, Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos2 is a must read, and for those wishing to make their knowledge official, the Cryptocurrency Certification Consortium, (C4) offers the Certified Bitcoin Professional (CBP) designation.3 Put simply, the blockchain is a growing list of records that can be visualized as a series of blocks linked by chains. Each block contains specific information - in Bitcoin’s case, a list of transactions and their data, which includes the time, date, amount, and the counterparties4 of each transaction. -
Deepweb and Cybercrime It’S Not All About TOR
A Trend Micro Research Paper Deepweb and Cybercrime It’s Not All About TOR Vincenzo Ciancaglini, Marco Balduzzi, Max Goncharov, and Robert McArdle Forward-Looking Threat Research Team Trend Micro | Deepweb and Cybercrime Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................3 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................3 Overview of Existing Deepweb Networks ......................................................................................5 TOR ............................................................................................................................................5 I2P ...............................................................................................................................................6 Freenet .......................................................................................................................................7 Alternative Domain Roots ......................................................................................................7 Cybercrime in the TOR Network .......................................................................................................9 TOR Marketplace Overview ..................................................................................................9 TOR Private Offerings ..........................................................................................................14 -
Characteristics of Bitcoin Transactions on Cryptomarkets
Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University EBCS Proceedings Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group 2019 Characteristics of Bitcoin Transactions on Cryptomarkets Xucan Chen Georgia State University Mohammad Al Hasan Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis Paval Skums Georgia State University Xintao Wu University of Arkansas Fayetteville Mohammad Javad Feizollahi Georgia State University See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/ebcs_proceedings Recommended Citation Chen X. et al. (2019) Characteristics of Bitcoin Transactions on Cryptomarkets. In: Wang G., Feng J., Bhuiyan M., Lu R. (eds) Security, Privacy, and Anonymity in Computation, Communication, and Storage. SpaCCS 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11611. Springer, Cham. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in EBCS Proceedings by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Xucan Chen, Mohammad Al Hasan, Paval Skums, Xintao Wu, Mohammad Javad Feizollahi, Marie Ouellet, Eric L. Sevigny, David Maimon, and Yubao Wu This article is available at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/ ebcs_proceedings/15 Characteristics of Bitcoin Transactions on Cryptomarkets Xucan Chen1;6, Mohammad Al Hasan2;6, Xintao Wu3;6, -
Economics of Illicit Behaviors: Exchange in the Internet Wild West
ECONOMICS OF ILLICIT BEHAVIORS: EXCHANGE IN THE INTERNET WILD WEST by Julia R. Norgaard A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Economics Committee: ___________________________________________ Director ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Department Chairperson ___________________________________________ Program Director ___________________________________________ Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Date: _____________________________________ Spring Semester 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Economics of Illicit Behaviors: Exchange in the Internet Wild West A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University By Julia R. Norgaard Master of Arts George Mason University, 2015 Bachelor of Arts University of San Diego, 2012 Director: Dr. Thomas Stratmann, Professor and Dissertation Chair Department of Economics Spring Semester 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright 2017 Julia R. Norgaard All Rights Reserved ii Dedication This is dedicated to my wonderful parents Clark and Jill, who introduced me to economics and taught me how to be a dedicated scholar and a good and faithful person. iii Acknowledgements Thank you to my family and friends who have supported me throughout my graduate journey. My boyfriend, Ennio, who gave -
Scalable Consensus Algorithms in Distributed Ledger Technologies Habib Yajam
Scalable Consensus Algorithms in Distributed Ledger Technologies Habib Yajam Secure Communication Lab, University of Tehran 1 Outline • Blockchains, what are them? Why we need them? And when? • A Brief History of Bitcoin. • Consensus Algorithms, Definition and Properties. • Categorizing Consensus Algorithms. • Hot Topics for Research. 2 Blockchains What are them? Why we need them? And when? 3 When do we need a Blockchain? Permissionless Is a Shared no Common Database Public Ledger needed? yes (Bitcoin) yes Can everyone no Permissioned no maintain the Are Multiple Traditional Public Ledger database Parties involved? Database (Ripple) integrity? yes yes Do Parties have no Permissioned conflicting Can everyone see no Private Ledger interests? the database? (Bankchain) yes Blockchain (DLT) 4 Blockchain Use Cases • P2P Payments • Video Games • Back Office Settlement • Supply Chain Management • Copyright Management • Reliable Log Keeping • Digital Identity Management • Decentralized Voting 5 What are the Ingredients? • P2P Network • Consensus Algorithm • Ledger Database 6 P2P Network 7 Transaction Flow in Bitcoin mempool 8 Bitcoin Blockchain 9 Generating a Valid Block (Mining) 4198659816850181691986501 Hash Function Change nonce no < 푡푎푟푔푒푡 yes Publish to Network 10 Generating a Valid Block (Mining) 1712039707102730871029375 Hash Function Change nonce no < 푡푎푟푔푒푡 yes Publish to Network 11 Generating a Valid Block (Mining) 0000961965911298498619761 Hash Function Change nonce no < 푡푎푟푔푒푡 yes Publish to Network 12 Nakamoto Consensus 13 Nakamoto Consensus 14 Nakamoto Consensus 15 Nakamoto Consensus 16 Nakamoto Consensus 17 Nakamoto Consensus 18 Forks Normal State Fork in Blockchain 19 Double Spending Attack 20 Double Spending Attack 21 Double Spending Attack 22 Double Spending Attack 23 Double Spending Attack 24 Bitcoin A Brief History 25 Bitcoin History (2009) • 01/03: (Block 1) The genesis block established by Satoshi Nakamoto. -
(Microsoft Powerpoint
KUINKAS SITTEN KÄVIKÄÄN? Kryptomarkkinoiden pökerryttävä historia ja arvaamaton tulevaisuus Antti Järventaus Lähihistoria Darknetin kasvu TOR-KÄYTTÄJIEN MÄÄRÄ GOOGLE-HAUT TERMILLÄ ”DARKNET” BITCOININ ARVO Rakennus- palikat Anonyymi- verkot Virtuaali Krypto- Salaus- valuutat markkinat teknologia Kauppa- paikka- teknologia Historia pähkinänkuoressa > 100 000 GAWKER & SILK ROAD TAPAUS ULBRICHT HUUMELISTAUSTA SEN. SCHUMER SULJETAAN & OP. ONYMOUS 32 000 42 000 SILK ROAD HUUMELISTAUSTA ALOITTAA 01/2011 01/2012 01/2013 01/2014 01/2015 01/2016 FOORUMIT, FARMER’S MARKET OLIGOPOLI: SILK ROAD, BLACK MARKET RELOADED, ATLANTIS 30 40 60 50 MONIPUOLISTUMINEN ??? Nykytila Markkinapaikat ja tuotteet Markkinapaikat Markkinapaikka Markkinapaikan URL Forumin URL Subreddit Alphabay http://pwoah7foa6au2pul.onion http://pwoah7foa6au2pul.onion/forum http://www.reddit.com/r/AlphaBay/ Dream Market http://lchudifyeqm4ldjj.onion http://tmskhzavkycdupbr.onion Valhalla (Silkkitie) http://valhallaxmn3fydu.onion http://thehub7gqe43miyc.onion/index.php?board=37.20 Hansa Market http://hansamkt2rr6nfg3.onion http://www.reddit.com/r/HansaMarket Outlaw Market http://outfor6jwcztwbpd.onion http://outforumbpapnpqr.onion http://www.reddit.com/r/Outlaw_Market Python Market http://25cs4ammearqrw4e.onion http://25cs4ammearqrw4e.onion https://www.reddit.com/r/PythonMarket/ Acropolis Market http://acropol4ti6ytzeh.onion http://acropolhwczbgbkh.onion http://www.reddit.com/r/AcropolisMarket Dr. D's Market http://drddrddig5z3524v.onion Tochka http://tochka3evlj3sxdv.onion Built-in -
The Payments Ecosystem: Security Challenges in the 21St Century
The Payments Ecosystem: Security Challenges in the 21st Century Phil Smith III Senior Architect & Product Manager, Mainframe & Enterprise Distinguished Technologist Micro Focus International Agenda A Short History of Payments The Payments Landscape Today Anatomy of a Card Swipe Card Fraud: How It Happens Protecting Yourself and Your Company Evolution (and Intelligent Design?) A Short History of Payments In the Beginning… Early Currencies Large Purchases Small Purchases Purchases on Yap (island of stone money) Evolution • “Lighter than goats!” • Chek invented: Persia, 550–330 BC • Achaemenid Empire (remember them?) • India, Rome, Knights Templar used cheques More Modern Uses • Cheques revived in 17th century England • Soon after: preprinted, numbered, etc. • Magnetic Ink Character Recognition added in 1960s MICR Modern Payments Systems Many Alternatives to Checks • Not the only game in town any more… • Online payment services (PayPal, WorldPay…) • Electronic bill payments (Internet banking et sim.) • Wire transfer (local or international) • Direct credit, initiated by payer: ACH in U.S. giro in Europe • Direct debit, initiated by payee • Debit cards • Credit cards We’ll focus on these • …and of course good ol’ cash! Charge Cards vs Credit Cards • Terms often interchanged, but quite different • Charge cards must be paid off that month • Credit cards offer “revolving credit” • Credit card actually “invented” back in 1888: “… a credit card issued him with which he procures at the public storehouses, found in every community, whatever he desires