At Digital Shadows, we’re constantly monitoring the status of cybercriminal locations on the clear, deep, and dark web. It’s a dynamic, ever-changing scene characterized by instability and distrust. Nothing lasts forever and nothing is too big to fail. While monitoring the rise and fall of specific marketplaces, forums, and AVCs, we have observed two main trends when sites meet their maker: platforms’ disappearances are sudden and exciting or more of a gradual fizzling out. In this blog, we’ll examine the different ways in which cybercriminal sites have come to an end and provide examples for each.
Sudden deaths of cybercriminal platforms
One day it’s there and the next it’s gone. Law enforcement takedowns, massive DDoS attacks, and exit scams have proved to be the final chapter for many a hitherto successful dark web location. Exit scams—where users are not aware of the impending demise of a platform and administrators make off with any deposits left on a site—can be planned or unplanned.
Law enforcement takedown
A site administration team’s poor operational security practices, insider betrayal, multi-jurisdictional police cooperation, or a combination of all three have led to many successful law enforcement takedowns in recent years.
In January 2021, a German law enforcement agency captured the popular dark web marketplace DarkMarket, replacing the site’s homepage with a notification of the seizure. This was a significant bust: As recently as December 2020, an announcement on the Reddit-style forum Dread reported that DarkMarket had hit the milestone of half a million users, signify ..
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