Beneath the Dark Web: Excavating the layers of cybercrime's underground economy

The Dark Web or DarkNet has attracted both considerable media and scholarly attention. This forms part of a broader tradition of analyzing relatively open cybercriminal marketplaces and forums. With the aid of data collected over a 7-year period, the focus of this paper is to help demarcate - beyond...

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Main Author: Lusthaus, J
Format: Conference item
Published: IEEE 2019
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author Lusthaus, J
author_facet Lusthaus, J
author_sort Lusthaus, J
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description The Dark Web or DarkNet has attracted both considerable media and scholarly attention. This forms part of a broader tradition of analyzing relatively open cybercriminal marketplaces and forums. With the aid of data collected over a 7-year period, the focus of this paper is to help demarcate - beyond the Dark Web alone - all the layers within the world of profit-driven cybercrime. These include: 1) the top layer, which is the most open forums and marketplaces, whether Dark Web or otherwise; 2) the middle layer of more closely vetted forums; 3) the bottom layer of even smaller and more closed groupings; 4) the molten core, which is centered on the offline organization of cybercrime. The purpose of this analysis is to identify key aspects of the underground economy which warrant further scholarly attention, and to suggest possible approaches to engage with these subjects going forward.
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spelling oxford-uuid:416c51a1-e6f7-4b5c-ad9b-479581321a4e2022-03-26T14:43:38ZBeneath the Dark Web: Excavating the layers of cybercrime's underground economyConference itemhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794uuid:416c51a1-e6f7-4b5c-ad9b-479581321a4eSymplectic Elements at OxfordIEEE2019Lusthaus, JThe Dark Web or DarkNet has attracted both considerable media and scholarly attention. This forms part of a broader tradition of analyzing relatively open cybercriminal marketplaces and forums. With the aid of data collected over a 7-year period, the focus of this paper is to help demarcate - beyond the Dark Web alone - all the layers within the world of profit-driven cybercrime. These include: 1) the top layer, which is the most open forums and marketplaces, whether Dark Web or otherwise; 2) the middle layer of more closely vetted forums; 3) the bottom layer of even smaller and more closed groupings; 4) the molten core, which is centered on the offline organization of cybercrime. The purpose of this analysis is to identify key aspects of the underground economy which warrant further scholarly attention, and to suggest possible approaches to engage with these subjects going forward.
spellingShingle Lusthaus, J
Beneath the Dark Web: Excavating the layers of cybercrime's underground economy
title Beneath the Dark Web: Excavating the layers of cybercrime's underground economy
title_full Beneath the Dark Web: Excavating the layers of cybercrime's underground economy
title_fullStr Beneath the Dark Web: Excavating the layers of cybercrime's underground economy
title_full_unstemmed Beneath the Dark Web: Excavating the layers of cybercrime's underground economy
title_short Beneath the Dark Web: Excavating the layers of cybercrime's underground economy
title_sort beneath the dark web excavating the layers of cybercrime s underground economy
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