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| A major dark web marketplace has mysteriously vanished |
Bloomberg reported that Empire Market, one of the major drug markets on the dark web, has been out of service for three days. What happened to the site administrator is unknown and his identity is still unknown.
Organizing crime forums or bazaars usually leads to contemplation of one of two possible outcomes, according to a cybersecurity expert surveyed by Bloomberg: arresting middlemen or stealing user deposits.
One of England's leading dark markets and famous for its drug trade, Empire Market also offers fake documents like passports, driver's licenses and malware ready-to-use.
Bloomberg reported that after other sites like Silk Road and AlphaBay shut down, the Empire Market has become the illegal dark web market with the largest volume of transactions in recent years.
Products that can be used for electronic fraud, such as drugs and malware, are traded for cryptocurrencies on the Empire Market.
These clandestine websites sometimes require sellers to make deposits to sell their products in the marketplace. This digital currency is stored in escrow accounts as an additional level of data protection and is used by the market as a means of transferring payments to illegal products.
According to experts at the Dark Web, it also gives administrators control over money, allowing them to shut down websites and steal cryptocurrencies without warning.
A security expert I interviewed by Bloomberg said the amount (for the imperial market) in escrow accounts is difficult to estimate, but is at least several million dollars.
For many years, there have been scams designed to shut down websites without warning and these scams to steal money from the underworld of the dark web. An executive serving Empire Market clients suggested they do the same this time.
One superintendent wrote in Empire Market: I feel ashamed of my bosses' apparent decision to hide with your money and it's hard to see that it's actually happening and it's anonymous. The manager himself stated a few days ago: The site is offline due to a denial of service attack.
Dark web sites hacked by law enforcement usually show notifications from affiliate agencies, but Empire Market doesn't.
Users of the dark web market mourning the loss and the lost cryptocurrency said, as they said on the forum: Without an admin tracking, they won't be able to access their account.