crime priority: online criminal markets

Ιllicit online markets, both on the surface web and Darknet, provide criminal vendors the opportunity to purvey all manner of illicit commodities, with those of a more serious nature typically found deeper in the Darknet. Many of these illicit goods, such as cybercrime toolkits or fake documents, are enablers for further criminality.

KEY FINDINGS

  • Darknet markets are a key cross-cutting enabler for other crime areas, providing access to, amongst other things, compromised payment data to commit various types of payment fraud, and fraudulent documents to facilitate fraud, trafficking in human beings and illegal immigration.
  • While an unprecedented number of users make use of Tor and similar anonymising networks, the Darknet is not yet the mainstream platform for the distribution of illicit goods, but is rapidly growing its own specific customer base in the areas of illicit drugs, weapons and child sexual exploitation material (CSEM).

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Law enforcement needs to develop a globally coordinated strategic overview of the threat presented by the Darknet, and monitor and understand emerging threats and relevant developments. Such analysis would allow for future coordination of global action to destabilise and close down criminal marketplaces.
  • While the expertise for investigating crime on the Darknet often resides within cybercrime units, only a limited proportion of the criminality thereon relates to cyber-dependent crime. It is therefore essential that investigators responsible for all crime areas represented on Darknet markets have the knowledge, expertise and tools required to effectively investigate and act in this environment.
  • Law enforcement must continue to cooperate and collaborate, and share tools, expertise and intelligence, in order to coordinate the global law enforcement response against the trade of illegal commodities through the Darknet.

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