Research MapsThreat Actors of the Dark Web

April 25, 2016

Known as the Dark Web, a vast amount of sites exist requiring specialized software, Tor is most commonly used, to access them. Now, the first map of the Dark Web has launched, according to Peeling Back the Onion Part 1: Mapping the #DarkWeb from Zero Day Lab. A partner of Zero Day Lab, Intelliagg is a threat intelligence service, which launched this map. While analyzing over 30,000 top-level sites, their research found English as the most common language and file sharing and leaked data were the most common hidden marketplaces, followed by financial fraud. Hacking comprised only three percent of sites studied. The write-up describes the importance of this map,

“Until recently it had been difficult to understand the relationships between hidden services and more importantly the classification of these sites. As a security researcher, understanding hidden services such as private chat forums and closed sites,  and how these are used to plan and discuss potential campaigns such as DDoS, ransom attacks, kidnapping, hacking, and trading of vulnerabilities and leaked data; is key to protecting our clients through proactive threat intelligence. Mapping these sites back to Threat Actors (groups), is even more crucial as this helps us build a database on the Capability, Infrastructure, and Motivations of the adversary.”

Quite an interesting study, both in topic and methods which consisted of a combination of human and machine learning information gathering. Additionally, this research produced an interactive map. Next, how about a map that shows the threat actors and their sites?

 

Megan Feil, April 25, 2016

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

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