Darknet markets generate millions in revenue selling stolen personal data

User messages, order histories, and account data are frequently stored without protection. Its main inventory includes corporate credentials, system logs, RDP access points, and internal network data. These assets are often used as initial entry points for ransomware operations. This data enables account takeover attacks across email, social media, and corporate tools. Logs are easy to deploy, making the platform attractive to low-skill actors. Brian’s Club is one of the longest-running carding sites referenced in U.S. criminal cases.

Explore content

As we move forward, technological advancements and regulatory measures will continue to shape the future of darknet markets. Users and law enforcement agencies alike must stay vigilant, navigating the ever-changing landscape of the dark web. The pursuit of privacy and security will remain at the forefront, driving the evolution of these clandestine platforms. The dark web is a hub for cybercrime services, with a wide array of hacking tools and fraud services available for purchase.

Cybersecurity News

As the digital economy of darknet markets continues to thrive, the focus on secure online trade remains paramount. Platforms such as AlphaBay, Empire Market, and White House Market have set industry standards by prioritizing user safety and operational efficiency. These platforms offer comprehensive guides, verified vendor lists, and up-to-date URLs, ensuring seamless access for users navigating this complex ecosystem. The evolution of darknet markets has been marked by significant advancements in technology and user experience, transforming them into sophisticated platforms for secure online trade.

Contents

Days later RuTor was targeted for another round of cyber attacks, this time by Killnet. Amid the cyber warfare between those vying to succeed Hydra, Russia’s drug trade, most of it orchestrated via darknet marketplaces continues almost in plain sight. Our team searched the dark web and put together a list of the most active dark web marketplaces in order to assist you in monitoring illegal trade of products, cybercrime activity, and dark web trends in the dark web space.

Trading Tips

Major active platforms include Abacus, Russian Market, BriansClub, and Exodus. Law enforcement takedowns, such as Archetyp, demonstrate both impact and adversary adaptation. For cybersecurity professionals, focusing on payment methods, vendor migration, and marketplace specialisation offers the most effective path to actionable intelligence. Monitoring active marketplaces offers early access to malware kits, credential dumps, and fraud tools. Tracking vendor migration—such as from Archetyp to Exodus—provides insight into tactical shifts.

Top 10 Darknet Markets 2025

Miklos has long-time experience in cybersecurity and data privacy having worked with international teams for more than 10 years in projects involving penetration testing, network security and cryptography. Every location where personal data is stored is a potential target for cybercriminals. Here are some methods to thwart unauthorized access to your data repositories. One could end up with their details being used to open accounts on various pornographic websites or cryptocurrency trading sites. In one particularly devastating case, a man lost his entire $80,000 pension. Using his credentials, cybercriminals committed a variety of online fraud activity over the course of six months.

Essential URLs for Secure and Efficient Darknet Trade

• Since 2020, 2easy has sold massive stealer logs with sensitive data like passwords, bank cards, and initial access credentials.
• Additionally, the lack of consumer protections can lead to transactions with unreliable vendors.
• Dark-web marketplaces attract sophisticated cybercriminals adept at launching phishing scams, malware attacks, or ransomware threats.
• Unlike legal platforms, they have no stable protections or long-term security guarantees.
• Collaboration between law enforcement and cybersecurity experts, as well as innovations in defense strategies, will be crucial to counter the relentless tactics of cybercriminals.
• In the U2U network, an edge connects nodes that are not necessarily users of the same market.

Despite minor accessibility inconveniences, these strengths have solidified its position among the top dark-web marketplaces in 2025. Mohammed Khalil is a Cybersecurity Architect at DeepStrike, specializing in advanced penetration testing and offensive security operations. With certifications including CISSP, OSCP, and OSWE, he has led numerous red team engagements for Fortune 500 companies, focusing on cloud security, application vulnerabilities, and adversary emulation. Mohammed’s work involves dissecting complex attack chains and developing resilient defense strategies for clients in the finance, healthcare, and technology sectors. He frequently researches dark web trends and threat actor tactics to inform defensive methodologies, and has a passion for educating others on cybersecurity best practices. If you’re looking to validate your security posture, identify hidden risks on the dark web, or build a more resilient defense strategy, DeepStrike is here to help.

Darknet News

As much as authorities work hard to shut down various sites, it shows what the dark web is capable of doing if left unchecked. Who doesn’t like privacy, especially when dealing with the buying and selling of illegal products and services? Therefore, given the nature of anonymity and privacy of the dark web, several stores keep on emerging in the dark despite a continuous crackdown on several others. The internet is a wide landscape that comprises the surface part – the internet that we all know and the hidden portion. The hidden part of the internet is the larger portion that features over 95% of the entire internet. This is the part of the internet known as the dark web, and it’s accessible via mainstream search engines such as Google.

• Prices are, however, expected to fall in case of a new cryptocurrency upturn, as this would lead to increased interest and hype from the general public.
• The website allows visitors to view all the goods and services on display before they buy something.
• However, the lifespan of those big ones might be short, so it’s a constant churn.
• This is when you will develop a crucial sense of cybersecurity both online and in everyday life.
• On average, the marketplace consists of more than 11,000 items and 1000 vendors.
• These giveaways not only gave BidenCash a surge of new users, but also disrupted the underground market by temporarily saturating it with free stolen data banks had to scramble to cancel a flood of cards.
• The first ever DNM — called Silk Road — was started in 2011 by U.S. citizen Ross Ulbricht.

Why do different sources list different “top” dark web marketplaces?

A thriving category of illicit goods and services sold on dark web markets is that of scans of personal documents. As with our previous reports, we gather data by scanning Dark Web marketplaces, forums, and websites. This information is then processed to generate an index of average prices for a broad range of specific products. In 2022 and Q dark web markets continued to bloom with a multitude of listings of various illegal goods and services. We do not engage with darknet markets; our mission is exclusively dedicated to providing information for research and educational purposes.

New payment processing services

Western drug flows in particular come from US-domiciled exchanges and trace flows from those to darknet markets. The entity “DNM Aggregator” that appears within each category refers to a service we’ve identified as being in control of multiple, disparate darknet markets. The market has built trust among users as it brings vendor reviews from different places and then verifies them with PGP signatures – that way, the buyers feel confident. All payments on the platform are via Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR) for anonymous transactions.

The pre-processing relies on established state-of-the-art heuristics to cluster addresses into entities, such as cospending, intelligence-base, and behavioral clustering39,40,41,42. The resulting data set includes for each transaction the source and destination entities, the time, and the value of the transaction. The largest component of the S2S network of U2U transactions between sellers for each year with the respective number of nodes (N). The nodes are sellers that are active in that year, and an edge is placed between two sellers if at least one transaction occurs between them during that year. The network is mostly populated by U2U-only sellers, followed by market-only sellers. After a major external shock in 2017, the S2S network shrinks but, unlike the multiseller network, recovers, and grows again (though slower than the multibuyer network).

• Nevertheless, most of the items in the darknet markets are illegal or heavily regulated.
• Brian’s Club is one of the longest-running carding sites referenced in U.S. criminal cases.
• Our team of seasoned practitioners brings experience from the front lines of cybersecurity including tracking dark web activity to provide clear, actionable guidance that protects your business.
• This tactic, seen in 2024 with incidents involving Ticketmaster and IntelBroker, could lead to an overall rise in data breaches.
• We found several thousand vendors selling tens of thousands of stolen data products on 30 darknet markets.
• Abacus Market was launched in 2021 and now lists over 40,000 illicit goods, including hacking tools, counterfeit documents, and listings for drugs.
• In 2013, the FBI shut down the Silk Road, but it was later relaunched in 2014 with the new name of Silk Road 2.0, but the German authorities shut it down in the same year.
• As an experienced blogger with a deep focus on technology, I am currently channeling my expertise toward a career in IT Security Analysis.

How to protect your personal data online

You’ll get stolen credit cards, remote desktop account info, personal details, and various logs. What makes this market popular is the fact that it’s less expensive compared to the rest. Therefore, it’s clear that as long as there’s demand and supply of illegal products, the darknet markets are going nowhere anytime soon, no matter the number of times law enforcement takes them down. Every potential participant’s credentials must be vigorously vetted before they can join. That way, they aim to create secure forums and limit outsiders like law enforcement. Likewise, law enforcement agencies each day continue to fine-tune their strategies to get past these networks.

The Silk Road marketplace

Dark web marketplaces are mostly hubs for illicit goods and activities, posing serious risks to users and the wider community. Of course, not all activity on the dark web is criminal, but such marketplaces are where a lot of illegal trade and money laundering happens. By relying on encryption, pseudo-anonymous currencies, and network-level anonymity, they create a false sense of safety, drawing in both buyers and sellers. Looking ahead, the continued integration of blockchain technology and privacy-focused tools is expected to further enhance the functionality and security of these platforms. As the digital economy of darknet markets continues to thrive, it remains a testament to the ingenuity and adaptability of online communities in creating sustainable and efficient trading environments. Another key aspect of this evolution is the rise of darknet market lists, which serve as directories for users to identify reliable platforms.

Top 15 Best Ethical Hacking Tools – 2026

We found several thousand vendors selling tens of thousands of stolen data products on 30 darknet markets. These vendors had more than $140 million in revenue over an eight-month period. It is common to hear news reports about large data breaches, but what happens once your personal data is stolen? Our research shows that, like most legal commodities, stolen data products flow through a supply chain consisting of producers, wholesalers, and consumers. But this supply chain involves the interconnection of multiple criminal organizations operating in illicit underground marketplaces.

• Torch is one of the more established dark web search engines, designed to help users navigate the Tor network and discover onion sites.
• These interfaces have made it easier for users to navigate complex systems, ensuring that even those with limited technical expertise can participate in the digital economy.
• It’s the place where you can buy or sell stolen credit card numbers, SSH login credentials, and personally identifiable information (PII).
• The dark web hosts a variety of illegal activities, many of which fuel cybercrime and real-world harm.
• User reviews and ratings are commonly featured, allowing buyers to assess the quality and reliability of the drugs being offered.
• Such markets are typically accessible through the Tor network, which anonymizes traffic by routing it through multiple relays and encrypting each layer.

Key Goods and Services Offered

Overall, dark-web marketplaces inherently involve substantial risk, and users must thoroughly understand these threats. Anyone considering engaging with these platforms must carefully evaluate potential consequences, exercise stringent security practices, and remain vigilant to minimize exposure to these significant hazards. Understanding both the lawful and unlawful scenarios helps provide a balanced view of their practical applications in 2025. Flugsvamp 4.0 presents as a localized, drug‑centric market that inherited the Flugsvamp brand but not its full network effects.

• The admins would periodically release massive dumps of stolen cards for free on hacking forums to promote the site.
• It offers impressive features, including PGP-signed addresses, payment via Monera, sticky and featured listings, and auto shops.
• These darknet markets are difficult to disrupt directly, but efforts to thwart customers of stolen data from using it offers some hope.
• The most recent example is the shutdown of the oldest marketplace Hydra Market in 2022 which took a combined effort of the FBI and the German authorities.
• It offers a wide range of goods and services with robust anti-DDoS protection (with military-grade security protocols) and no JavaScript, ensuring privacy and uptime.
• It doesn’t use JavaScript, meaning the website won’t track your activities or exploit vulnerabilities.
• The marketplace is much more organized, which makes it easy to use and navigate.

The sale of counterfeit items highlights the diverse nature of illicit activities on the dark web, catering to a wide range of criminal enterprises. Commonly traded substances include heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and ecstasy, with a noticeable increase in the availability of synthetic drugs marketed as legal alternatives to darknet markets controlled substances. The persistent demand for these illegal drugs underscores the ongoing challenges faced by law enforcement agencies in curbing the illicit drug trade on the dark web. These platforms offer a wide variety of drug listings, often organized by categories such as stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens.