AlphaBay

AlphaBay Market
Type of site
 Online market
Available in English
Owner alpha02 & DeSnake
Website http://pwoah7foa6au2pul.onion[1][2]
Commercial Yes
Registration Required
Users 240,000+
Launched December 2014
Current status Online

AlphaBay Market is an online darknet market operating on the Tor network. Pre-launched in November 2014 and officially launched on December 22, 2014, it saw a steady growth, with 14,000 new users in the first 90 days of operation. The darknet informer website Gwern.net placed AlphaBay Market in the top tier of markets regarding the 6-month survival probability and it has proven to be successful.[3] In October 2015, it was recognized as the largest online darknet market according to Dan Palumbo, research director at Digital Citizens Alliance.[4]

Non-standard services include customisable digital contracts around building reputations.[5]

AlphaBay is noteworthy in the world of darknet markets for accepting another cryptocurrency in supplement to bitcoin: support for Monero, supposed to be more anonymous, was implemented at the end of August 2016.[6]

News coverage

On March 28, 2015, AlphaBay Market made the news for selling stolen Uber accounts.[7][8] Uber sent a statement regarding a potential data breach:

"We investigated and found no evidence of a breach. Attempting to fraudulently access or sell accounts is illegal and we notified the authorities about this report. This is a good opportunity to remind people to use strong and unique usernames and passwords and to avoid reusing the same credentials across multiple sites and services."

In May 2015 the site announced an integrated digital contracts and escrow system.[9] The contract system allows users to make engagements and agree to provide services in the future, according to the terms of the contract.

In October 2015, the London-based telecommunications company TalkTalk suffered a major hack.[10] The stolen data was put for sale on AlphaBay Market, which led to the arrest of a 15-year-old boy.[11] TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding issued the following statement:

"TalkTalk constantly updates its systems to make sure they are as secure as possible against the rapidly evolving threat of cyber crime, impacting an increasing number of individuals and organisations. We take any threat to the security of our customers' data extremely seriously and we are taking all the necessary steps to understand what has happened here."

In December 2015, the website CodeBreaker released a podcast describing shopping experience on the marketplace.[12] This podcast talks about purchasing legal items on the marketplace, such as Pharmaceutical drugs.

The UK-based media outlet DailyMail pointed that the marketplace might be linked to the Russian mafia.[13] According to the UK-based media outlet Daily Mirror, "It is administered in Russia and has a Russian computer server. Experts claim it has links to the country’s mafia and has proved impossible to shut."[14]

References

  1. ↑ "AlphaBay - Deep Dot Web". DeepDotWeb. Retrieved 2015-02-06.
  2. ↑ "AlphaBay". DarkNet Stats. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  3. ↑ "Black-market risks - Gwern.net". Gwern.
  4. ↑ "Buying Drugs Online Remains Easy". Southwest Coalition.
  5. ↑ Francis, Ryan (13 October 2016). "Darkweb marketplaces can get you more than just spam and phish". Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  6. ↑ Aliens, C. (23 August 2016). "AlphaBay and Oasis Markets to Begin Accepting Monero for Payments".
  7. ↑ "Stolen Uber Customer Accounts Are for Sale on the Dark Web for $1". Motherboard.
  8. ↑ "Stolen Uber accounts on sale for $1 each". DigitalTrends.
  9. ↑ Cox, Joseph (1 May 2015). "This Dark Web Market Just Started Offering Contracts for Anything". Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  10. ↑ "TalkTalk hacked in significant and sustained cyberattack". Engadget.
  11. ↑ "TalkTalk breach: CEO dismisses encryption, 15-year-old arrested". NakedSecurity.
  12. ↑ "The Dark Web: Is it Evil?". CodeBreaker.
  13. ↑ "TalkTalk customers bank details stolen in massive online hack are already up for sale at £1.62 a time". DailyMail.
  14. ↑ "Hacked TalkTalk information on sale to organised fraud gangs for £1.60 a time". Daily Mirror.
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