How shady business is done on the dark web

Latest Kaspersky research reveals cybercriminals posted more than 1 million messages mentioning escrow services on the darknet in 2020-2022. Escrow agents are third-party intermediaries involved in such deals to control the fulfillment of agreements and reduce the risks of cheating. They partner with cybercriminals who want to sell or buy data, services, or conclude a partnership - usually earning from three to 15 percent of the transaction. However, the deal can still fail for various reasons, including those related to escrow scams. How such business is done on the darknet is described in a new report by Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence team.

Cybercriminals active on the darknet care about their own security, and do not want to become a victim of their “colleagues”. When closing any transaction, such as buying databases, accounts, initial corporate accesses, etc., they use intermediary services of escrow agents. It can be a human or an automatic system, developed to speed up and simplify relatively typical deals. For expensive or untypical cases, cybercriminals still engage a human intermediary.

Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence team monitors the darknet to help companies track cybercriminal discussions and other types of activities to prevent incidents and mitigate risks related to data leaks. The experts found the number of messages mentioning the use of an escrow agent (or other terms such as “guarantor”, “middleman”, “intermediary”, etc., designated to the same services) has amounted to more than one million from January 2020 to December 2022. These messages accounted for 14 percent of the total number of deal-related messages on various dark web resources. In fact, the share of deals with escrow services can be higher since cybercriminals often discuss detailed terms in person without specifying all the particulars in announcements and offers.

Despite the rules of communication between cybercriminals on the forums and “dark web etiquette”, no escrow service protects against cheating. Apart from the cases when the buyer or seller changes their mind, one of the deal-breakers could be foul play. Both seller and buyer, as well as the escrow agent, can violate the deal arrangements, especially when it comes to large sums. With the help of Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence, experts found a post accusing an official escrow agent of two shadow forums (including the popular one) of not paying a total of US$170,000 in four deals.

Since the dark web community becomes more complex and structured, developing self-regulation systems as it grows. For effective protection against cybercriminals it is worth understanding how it operates, how cybercriminals interact with each other, what kinds of deals there are, and how they are carried out. 

To stay protected from the corporate threats emerging from darknet activities, Kaspersky researchers recommend implementing the following measures:

• Always keep software updated on all the devices you use to prevent attackers from infiltrating your network by exploiting vulnerabilities. Install patches for new vulnerabilities as soon as possible. Once it is downloaded, threat actors can no longer abuse the vulnerability.
• Use the latest Threat Intelligence information to stay aware of actual TTPs used by threat actors.
• Use Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence to help security analysts explore an adversary’s view of their company resources, promptly discover the potential attack vectors available to them, or be aware about existed threats from cybercriminals in order to adjust their defenses accordingly or take counter and elimination measures timely.
• If you are faced with an incident, Kaspersky Incident Response service will help you respond and minimize the consequences, in particular – identify compromised nodes and protect the infrastructure from similar attacks in the future.