When dark net markets are shut, their users typically move quickly to new markets. But on Thursday, news of the joint operation sent the community into a panic. AlphaBay, the largest so-called dark net market, was taken down in early July at the same time the authorities arrested the reported founder of the site, Alexandre Cazes, a Canadian man who was living in Bangkok.
Cazes, 25, apparently took his life a week later while in Thai custody, the Justice Department said. Cazes was logged on to AlphaBay at the time of his arrest, allowing authorities to find his passwords and other information about the site’s servers, according to legal documents. The operation included the arrest on July 5 of suspected AlphaBay founder Alexandre Cazes, a Canadian citizen arrested on behalf of the United States in Thailand. While the founder of AlphaBay, Alexandre Cazes, is dead, Herrell was in a position of power within the organization. As a moderator, Herrell was responsible for settling disputes between users, and the Department of Justice documents says that it was involved in over 20,000 such disputes.
federal bureau of investigation
The DDoS protection and bot detection measures are excessive for a brand new marketplace. While navigating the domain manually, DarkOwl analysts regularly had to reset their Tor circuit and refresh their identity to simply view the vendor listings. During this research, DarkOwl discovered a surface web domain that mirrors much of the information DeSnake shared on Dread, but with a Tor link to the market that is not in the mirrors.txt verified links list from AlphaBay.
- DarkOwl has been unable to assess how the larger darknet community feels about the new Alphabay Market.
- The surface web domain is likely setup specifically to direct users to a phishing site where their credential information can be stolen.
- AlphaBay, a dark web market, began in 2014 and quickly became one of the most prominent markets of its time.
- AlphaBay’s marketplace and forum are also available on the darknet I2P.
- Time will tell if this AlphaBay becomes as popular as the original market – for now this is definitely one to watch.
They also noted in their post that the forum will include a ranking system of “trust levels” to minimize scammer activities. “AlphaBay sold drugs, guns and hacking tools online — until a sting operation shut it down”. One of the big ideas that “Tracers in the Dark” really drills into the reader is that it’s not just that Bitcoin actually isn’t anonymous.
Genesis Market
And when Alexandre Cazes wrote under the Alpha02 moniker on the site, he sometimes signed off with a Russian phrase for “stay safe.” But when Cazes was later tracked down in Thailand, many assumed AlphaBay’s Russian fingerprints had been designed to mislead investigators. DeSnake credits his ongoing freedom to an operational security regimen that borders on the extreme. He says his work computers run an “amnesiac” operating system, like the security-focused Tails distribution of Linux, designed to store no data. He claims, in fact, not to store any incriminating data on hard drives or USB drives at all, encrypted or not, and declined to explain further how he pulls off this apparent magic trick. DeSnake also claims to have prepared a USB-based “kill switch” device designed to wipe his computers’ memory and shut them off in seconds if they ever leave his control. The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies.
DeSnake’s detailed instructions for installing I2P on Dread fail to mention the potential risks of peer discovery and de-anonymization through known techniques like Eclipse and Sybil attacks in conjunction with flood-fill takeovers. Interestingly, the last known Monero-I2P-centric market was Liberitas, which went offline in June 2019 after a very short stint on the I2P network. AlphaBay operated as a hidden service on the “Tor” network, and utilized cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Monero and Ethereum in order to hide the locations of its underlying servers and the identities of its administrators, moderators, and users.
Alphabay Marketplace
As to security and anonymity, marketplaces guarantee their users’ privacy and protection, which provide threat actors with a safe and optimal environment for their illegal activities. Because of the range of goods and services found for sale and the conversations that occur around these sales, dark web marketplaces can be precious sources of data on criminal activity. As such, they are normally under intense scrutiny from law enforcement and security professionals alike. AlphaBay’s quick growth—or regrowth—has been fueled in part by what Gray calls “the Great Cyber Resignation.” At least 10 dark web markets have dropped offline for various reasons in the last 18 months.
Further down the road, DeSnake will get to demoing the project and bringing on a marketing team. “RCMP’s ‘Dark Web’ investigation leads to searches in Montreal, Trois-Rivières”. “AlphaBay taken down by law enforcement across 3 countries, WSJ says”. 5 July 2017Canadian police raid EBX Technologies in Montreal, Cazes’ Canadian company and the reported location of the physical servers, as well as two residential properties in Trois-Rivières. Cazes’ laptop reportedly contained an unencrypted personal net worth statement mapping all global assets across multiple jurisdictions, conveniently leading police to complete asset seizure.
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At the end of last week, DeSnake announced on a dark web forum that the AlphaBay market reopened and was ready for business. One user openly joked they would stick to purchasing their drugs on social media. As recently as last year, a California Court sentenced Brian Herrell, a Colorado native and AlphaBay moderator who operated under the moniker “Botah” to 11 years in prison for racketeering and for his connections to AlphaBay. Upon his initial arrest, reports suggested he faced up to 20 years for his involvement in the marketplace.
The authorities have moved quickly to seize Mr. Cazes’ significant assets, including properties in Antigua, Cyprus and Thailand; 10 vehicles, including a Lamborghini and a Porsche; and financial assets of about $18 million. On Thursday, visitors to AlphaBay and Hansa Market found messages from the authorities announcing the seizure of the sites. The Dutch authorities said they had been able to use Hansa Market as a trap to catch vendors and customers fleeing AlphaBay. The authorities said that in the days after AlphaBay went down, the number of vendors operating on Hansa Market jumped to 8,000 on an average day from 1,000. Officials said they found Mr. Cazes because he had posted his personal email address, , in some early messages from AlphaBay.