In response to law enforcement’s increased involvement with targeting the illegal activities taking place on the Dark Web, criminals have began to use messaging apps to conduct their illicit operations.
According to a threat report from IntSights Cyber Intelligence, a slew of messaging apps are being used by these Dark Web criminals including Skype, Discord, Whatsapp, ICQ and Telegram because of the apps’ ability to offer group chat.
Since these apps are readily available to anyone with a smart device, it is now even easier and a very convenient way to connect to others and their Dark Web activities.
They have been posting on forums and other similar websites in order to invite like-minded criminals to the app they’re using and the subsequent group chat. They’re continuing to exchange drugs, deceptive software, stolen personal information, credit card numbers and ways to hack electronics of various natures.
Some have even taken it as far as to create apps that essentially connect to the Tor network, thus allowing the user to connect to the Dark Web easier and faster than ever before.
The anonymity factor has also been restored to the user. Since the Dark Web has seen an increase of involvement by law enforcement, anonymity availability had taken a major hit until this latest development. Being anonymous was the key characteristic of Tor and the Dark Web that attracted criminals to it in the first place.
It seems that if one wants to navigate sites and services available on the Dark Web, they will no longer need “insider info” or special software to access it. While it is fact that these Dark Web criminals have essentially risen to the surface web that we all know, their level of anonymity has came back as well. Law enforcement will waste no time investigating all of these “New Dark Web” methods so don’t expect the criminals to remain anonymous for long.
