In the last 72 hours, numerous darknet markets (DNMs) have been downed in a concerted DDoS attack. Meanwhile, Europol has been crowing over its success in toppling two markets that were already known to be stricken, Wall Street and Valhalla. As the dust settles, darknet users have been trying to separate FUD from fact.
Also read: The Darknet Rises With 6 New Markets
Europol Claims Two New Scalps from the Dark Side of the Web
Three Germans have been arrested for their alleged involvement in running Wall Street, the darknet’s second largest marketplace after Dream, according to Europol. With Dream itself having spent the past month winding down, and its successor (weroidjkazxqds2l.onion) yet to materialize, DNM users have been forced to look elsewhere. As news.Bitcoin.com recently reported, there is no shortage of darknet markets seeking to pick up the slack from Dream and Wall Street, though accessing them is proving challenging.
Earlier today, Deepdotweb was showing 20 of the darknet’s 30-odd DNMs as being offline including Cryptonia, Core, and Agartha. The Dread discussion forum was also down, though service appears to have been restored to most of these platforms at press time. The aim of the DDoS attacks is likely to sow confusion and to prevent DNM users from conversing, though financial incentives may also be a factor; Dream’s admins previously claimed to have been blackmailed for $400K by a persistent DDoSer, spurring them to shutter the site.
Double blow to illegal dark web marketplaces: Wall Street Market and Silkkitie (Valhalla) shut down after global law enforcement operations coordinated by @bka @SuomenTulli and supported by @Europol.
