HANSA Marketplace has been BREACHED & CEASED by US. Department of Justice & Europol Cyberforce Division

crypto.hype (66)in #news • 7 years ago (edited)

Hansa Market Ceased @crypto.hype.png

Two weeks ago the largest dark web marketplace Alphabay was taken down by the FBI as announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a news conforence at the Department of Justice in Washington. Acting FBI director Andrew McCabe mentioned it was about 10 TIMES THE SIZE OF SILKROAD. The US authorities, Thailand, Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, the UK and France worked together to take it down.

In the spur of the panic, vendors and users alike had fled and found refuge in other marketplaces such as Dream Marketplace, and one that was rather established, Hansa Marketplace

Little did anyone know that Hansa had ALREADY been breached. Such movements were predicted and it is known that Dutch Authorities had already seized Hansa as well as another major dark web market and had been operating as usual. Private data such as Passwords, User names, activities, credentials and more have been logged throughout and it's a very dangerous moment for those who engage in darknet trading.

The Europol and US department of Justice had announced the blow of the operation from Alphabays bust (which is known to have had generated billions of dollars from sales of illicit drugs, data such as credit cards, and illegal goods over its 3 year lifetime), as well as Hansa.

"Make no mistake, the forces of law and justice face a new challenge from the criminals and transnational criminal organizations who think they can commit their crimes with impunity by ‘going dark.’ This case, pursued by dedicated agents and prosecutors, says you are not safe. You cannot hide. We will find you, dismantle your organization and network. And we will prosecute you."
Commented Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a press conference.

Alphabay's Case

As the Thai Authorities had caught up with Mr. Alexande Cazes, a Canadian known to have been one of the major people running the Alphabay operation, the FBI and DEA had sought to extradite him in an operation called Bayonet. Though Mr. Cazes was found hung to death in an apparent suicide within his jail cell in Bangkok.

It is known that Mr. Czes's personal email "[email protected]" was inexplicably included in his welcome message to new users. A very very careless mistake. Which had led law enforcement to his Paypal account and what seems like a front company called EBX Technologies. On July 5, Thai police along with FBI and DEA agents had stormed Cazes' home in Bangkok and had found an unencrypted laptop, of which they had managed to log into the Alphabay site.

Unfortunately, little information is provided on how Hansa Marketplace was cracked as information on server locations, administrators were not released.

What marketplace will people flee to?

It's no doubt that Dream Marketplace will take refuge of the Hansa and Alphabay users, becoming the next bazaar for the time being. Though there is much speculation on Dream being compromised or monitored heavily as the law enforcement are taking extra steps to think ahead, unlike in previous years.

My take on all this

The law may have swung a major blow to these two major sites, though, if a user had practiced proper OPSEC as well as encrypted their addresses no matter what, accessed TOR properly, they should be safe. It's no doubt that the law enforcement will keep going after these marketplaces, but it does not mean its the end of such underground places.

After the takedown of the most famous emerging marketplace, Silkroad in 2013, everyone just jumped ship to the other existing darknet marketplaces. It's a game cat and mouse as no matter what, as cliche as it sounds, where there is demand, there is always supply.