Criminals have historically preferred to operate in the shadows, and today is no different. Modern criminal purveyors of stolen data find the relative anonymity and reach of the Dark Web ideal for the sale of such goods. This creates a challenge for law enforcement, specifically how to effectively respond to and disrupt these emerging illicit markets.
CINA researchers at Georgia State University developed tools to access, cleanse, and process data about these markets. The researchers examined trends in how actors in these markets first emerge, establish their reputations, and manage the sourcing and sale of online data both within and across markets, specifically in the online stolen data market. The researchers aim to detect the vendors that are driving market trends, and to conduct detailed analyses on how these vendors first got started and the trajectories their criminal careers followed.
The ultimate goal of this project is to develop and test various network disruption strategies across actors active in these markets and forums. These models and strategies can eventually be used by law enforcement to support real-time intelligence collection, identification of trends, actors, and network structures, and the planning and execution of disruption and intervention operations against these actors and networks.
Research Products:
Publications:
The network of online stolen data markets: How vendor flows connect digital marketplaces
Final Report: “Open Source Intelligence in Online Stolen Data Markets: Assessment of Network Disruption Strategies