Internef – 237
Founded in 2011, Silk Road was the first online anonymous marketplace,
in which buyers and sellers could transact with anonymity guarantees
far superior to those available in online or offline alternatives,
thanks to the innovative use of cryptocurrencies and network
anonymization. Business on Silk Road, primarily involving narcotics
trafficking, was brisk and before long competitors appeared. After
Silk Road was taken down by law enforcement, a dynamic ecosystem of
online anonymous marketplaces emerged. That ecosystem is highly
active, to this day, and has been surprisingly resilient to multiple
law enforcement take down operations as well as “exit scams,” in which
the operators of a marketplace abruptly abscond with any money left on
the platform.
I will describe insights gained from eight years of active measurement
of the online anonymous market ecosystem. More precisely, I will
highlight the scientific challenges in collecting such data at scale.
I will discuss how overall revenues have steadily grown year after
year, and describe the leading types of commerce taking place on these
markets. I will then focus on the role online anonymous markets play
in cybercrime commoditization. Last, I will explain our efforts on
matching a priori disparate vendor handles to unique individuals, and
on detecting impersonation attacks. This will help me introduce some
of the research avenues we are currently pursuing.