Analysis of Hacking Related Trade in the Darkweb
Othmane Cherqi, Ghita Mezzour, Mounir Ghogho, Mohammed El Koutbi · 2018
The non-referenced web is estimated at five hundred times the size of the surface web. Darkweb represents about 6% of the non-referenced web and includes all kinds of delinquency: drug trafficking, counterfeiting, hacking market etc. Several studies about Darkweb marketplaces have been carried out, focusing mainly on the analysis of drug trafficking or the extraction of products sold in different forums. To the best of our knowledge, by the time of this study, no work has yet been done to analyze hacking trade business.Most hackers rely on malwares and softwares offered in different cyber markets to commit their attacks. The main objective of our work is to present an exploratory analysis of the illegal trade that is developing in this marketplaces in order to have a clear idea of threats that may harm individuals, industries and organizations. Through this work, we have been able to give a clear insight on the hacking market. The main motivation of sellers in this market is profit making, in fact this market generated over 26 million USD during the period studied. Product accessibility is also an alarming factor: 85% of the products offered do not exceed 150 USD, making cyber crime accessible to all. Finally, one cell controls almost the entire market, indicating the presence of a well-organized infrastructure. The results of this analysis are discussed below.