Hackers Extorting the Darknet with DDoS Attacks

Deep web news source Darknetlive reported that a person or organization that routinely performs distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against black market darknets has reached out to its administrators with a ransom demand.

Darknetlive – a site closely associated with the deep web underworld – reported that the attacker had accessed a select number of black market administrators in the last 48 hours. The messages promised that the attacks would stop for a few days and demanded a ransom in exchange for extended server uptime.

Darknetlive executives explained that the sources behind the news “were threatened with going under the table or they would get DDoSed again.”

A DDoS attack floods a network or website with requests from multiple sources, overwhelming its infrastructure and making it unavailable to its intended users. The attack is carried out by a distributed network of compromised devices – known as bots – or many volunteer participants as often happens with large groups of activists.

Attacking devices send a large number of requests to the target, overwhelming its servers and causing it to slow down or crash.

DDoS attacks can be very disruptive, cause huge financial losses and damage the target’s reputation. They are often used by competitors or other malicious actors to extort money from companies, disrupt online services, or launch political or social attacks.

Darknetlive explained that black markets find themselves in a “prisoner’s dilemma” because any payments would provide funding for further attacks on all other markets.

The outlet further explains that “the individual is suspected of running out of funding, given that no market official has agreed to pay a ransom for about a year up to this point.”

The deep web black market is an online market that operates on a portion of the internet not indexed by traditional search engines, known as the “deep web”. These marketplaces are designed to facilitate the buying and selling of illegal or illicit goods and services, such as drugs, stolen data, fake documents, and malware.

Transactions in these black markets are often conducted using cryptocurrencies — primarily bitcoin (BTC) and monero (XMR) — to maintain anonymity and avoid detection by law enforcement.

While some products sold on black markets on the deep web may be legal in some jurisdictions, the anonymity and unregulated nature of these markets has made them a popular destination for criminals looking to profit from illegal activities.

Use of these marketplaces can also pose significant risks to buyers, including potential for fraud, scams, or exposure to malware.

Law enforcement agencies around the world have stepped up their efforts to combat these markets, often working in cooperation with technology companies and other organizations to shut them down and prosecute those responsible for their operations.

This development comes on the heels of recent reports that an international investigation took down two cryptocurrency communities and marketplace dedicated to sharing child sexual abuse material on the deep web.