Project Overview
There are many dark marketplaces (also known as darknet marketplaces or cryptomarkets) on the internet, specialising in trading illegal goods. These marketplaces typically use the Tor network for anonymous access and cryptocurrencies for financial transactions. It is thanks to these mechanisms that market operators and users can maintain a high degree of anonymity. Obtaining evidence of the operators of these markets, vendors and buyers, then represents a complicated and costly venture, which in most cases requires mutual and practical international cooperation.
The BAZAR project focuses on obtaining non-trivial information on dark markets' operation and sharing this information among leading experts within the Czech and European security forces. From the technological point of view, the project will focus on the analysis of darknet marketplace trends occurring on anonymisation networks (especially Tor, but also others), in particular on those trends related to:
- using cryptocurrencies as a means of making payment transactions between operators, vendors and buyers (e.g., cryptocurrencies used, types of cryptocurrency addresses, forensic analysis of relevant blockchain databases);
- software used within the darknet marketplace (e.g., the presence/absence of JavaScript language, used HTML frameworks, used versions of HTTP servers and their modules, used versions of encryption libraries and others);
- applied techniques associated with intentional aggravation of automated content processing of such marketplaces (e.g., .onion domain rotation, human user verification using CAPTCHAs and others).
The project's primary goal is to pass on the acquired knowledge and information about darknet marketplaces to the relevant units of the Police of the Czech Republic and other interested units across Europe. That will enable security forces to participate more effectively in obtaining the necessary evidence. Thanks to the established cooperation, a community of experts dealing with darknet marketplaces, cybersecurity and cryptocurrencies will be built, which will enable possible future participation in international calls and program initiatives focused on the given topics.
Project Objectives
The project's primary objective is to strengthen cooperation with the security forces in the Czech Republic and Europe and create a community of experts sharing information regarding the darknet markets' functioning. To achieve the project's main objective, detailed information about the darknet markets' current functioning will be gathered throughout its duration.
This information will be shared in the form of international workshops, training and work meetings, which will raise awareness of the functioning of darknet marketplaces and increase the readiness and ability of security forces to deal with cases related to the issue successfully. Training materials and workshops will be prepared in both Czech and English to ensure their internationality. The planning of workshop topics will be done in collaboration with an expert guarantor. Thanks to the planned activities and meetings, more effective cooperation will be established between the solution team and the security forces.
Among the expected main results of the BAZAR project according to the RIV methodology, it is planned to report:
- (type V; submission December 2022) research report summarising trends in dark marketplaces;
- (type W; at least one in 2021 and another in 2022) training and its support materials such as presentations and laboratory manuals;
- (type W; implementation June 2022, another potentially December 2021 and March / December 2022) seminar of the selected topics at the international conference Intelligence Support Systems for Electronic Surveillance (abbreviation ISS World) in front of representatives of security departments from around the world;
- (type R; September 2021) software for collecting data and metadata from dark markets and a non-public database collecting this information;
- (type R; December 2021) software for correlating trades in marketplaces with transactions in blockchain databases.
In light of the above, the project's primary goal is to consolidate all the useful discoveries about darknet marketplaces' current functioning. Subsequently, try to draw non-trivial conclusions from these findings, which should help analyse crimes related to the darknet marketplaces. These conclusions will then be prepared in a research report, a comprehensive training/workshop and a seminar at an international conference.
Deliverable
| Deadline | Code - Type | Description of the expected result |
|---|---|---|
| 09-2021 | R - software for data and metadata collection from darknet marketplaces | The software will periodically access selected darknet marketplaces. It will then download lists of offered goods, their prices and the state of stocks, information on sellers and buyers from the non-public content of the markets. It will store all this data in a relational database enabling mass processing and analysis. |
| Q3/4-2021 | W - organization of a national workshop | In cooperation with a professional guarantor, a workshop will be organized for relevant units of the Police of the Czech Republic, presenting in particular the implemented tools and their outputs. Possible scenarios for the use of the obtained data in the operational practice of the participants will be presented. |
| 12-2021 | R - software for correlating trades in marketplaces with transactions in blockchain databases | The software will use the outputs of the metadata collection software as its inputs. By comparing changes in the data on advertised products over time (such as purchase counter, stock level and price), this software will detect the trade (i.e. the purchase of a commodity at the market) and search the relevant time window for cryptocurrency transactions whose value is closest to the calculated trade amount. The addresses discovered in this way in a given cryptocurrency are then marked with a sign identifying them as potential customers or sellers of the given marketplace. |
| 06-2022 | W - seminar at an international conference | For the purpose of passing on the most important knowledge acquired during the project solution and instructions for the use of implemented software, a comprehensive seminar will be created. This seminar is planned to be presented at an international conference dedicated to security forces. The Intelligence Support Systems for Electronic Surveillance conference is now a possibility, at which the main researcher of the project regularly acts as an expert on security and cryptocurrencies and where he has the promised support of the organizers for the seminar. |
| Q3/4-2022 | W - organization of an international workshop | In the second half of the second year of the project, a workshop will be organized for interested representatives of Czech and foreign security forces within the community to present current software options, dealing in more detail with trends in darknet markets during the project, case studies and conclusions for operational practice from long-term metadata collection. |
| 12-2022 | V - research report | At the end of the project, a detailed research report will be written mapping all project outputs and the fulfillment of the set goals. The report will be accompanied by a snapshot of a non-public database created by long-term activities of the implemented software. |
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This project is financed by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic.
Contact Address
Faculty of Information TechnologyBrno University of Technology
Bozetechova 1/2
612 00 Brno
Czech Republic
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