Resecurity has noticed that darknet marketplaces that sell drugs and other illegal substances have begun using their own Android apps to increase privacy and avoid law enforcement attention.
Researchers have been observing this trend since the third quarter of 2022. In their opinion, this behavior of criminals was a response to last year’s actions of law enforcement agencies (especially the closure of the Hydra Market).Let me remind you that we also wrote that Due of the sanctions, Russian hackers are looking for new ways to launder money, and also that the US authorities imposed sanctions on cryptocurrency exchange Suex.
After the liquidation of the Hydra marketplace by law enforcement officers, several smaller players tried to take advantage of the situation and lure Hydra users.
Resecurity experts immediately listed seven examples of marketplaces that released APK files of their own Android applications through which customers can access stores and services: Yakudza, TomFord24, 24Deluxe, PNTS32, Flakka24, 24Cana and MapSTGK. Interestingly, they all used the M-Club CMS engine to create their APKs, which means they most likely used the services of the same developer.
The company report states that such mobile applications allow the transfer of data on drug orders, as well as send the geographic coordinates of the “treasure” left by the courier to the buyer. Since the exchange of information now takes place in several different applications, this creates fragmentation and makes it difficult for law enforcement to track down criminals.
Resecurity believes that most new marketplaces in 2023 will use their own Android apps, which will gradually replace the forums and marketplaces familiar to users.
At the same time, it is noted that so far the most famous darknet platforms have not released their own applications for Android and are instead busy competing with each other, seeking to build the same monopoly that the Hydra Market previously achieved.
According to Resecurity, RuTor, WayAway, Legalizer, OMG!, Solaris and Nemesis were the biggest beneficiaries of the Hydra shutdown. Since then, these sites have attracted more than 795,000 new users in total.
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