In a joint operation, the French police and the National Directorate of Intelligence and Customs Investigations closed Black Hand, one of the largest illegal markets of the dark web; cyber crime experts with information security training experience, say drugs, weapons, databases, stolen bank data and fake documents could be found on sale in Black Hand.
According to a statement by Gérald Darmanin, Minister of Public Action and Accounts, the authorities also caught the chief administrator of Black Hand and several other persons. After gaining access to the Black Market servers, the authorities seized counterfeit documents, 4.000 euros in cash and about 25.000 euros in cryptocurrency.
Numerous computer equipment were also seized during the operation; a data analysis showed that there were more than 3.000 users of this market in France, indicating that the website was quite active in the country for supplying drugs, weapons and other illegal content.
“This exceptional operation, the first of its kind in France, took place simultaneously in several cities all over the country and mobilized more than forty government agents and several technical experts,” said the Minister of Public Action.
“I commend the officers for this extraordinary operation. The dismantling of this platform is a great new and illustrates the mobilization of our agents and, in particular, the national leadership in the fight against new forms of crime against information security”, Darmanin said.
This is the second news related to the dark web arriving from France in the last days. According to reports from the International Institute of Cyber Security, on June 16, the French police announced that a salesman who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in this network was arrested, as a result of intelligence activities and information security training.
In addition, this is not the first time that European authorities and specialists in information security training have shut down an active market in the dark web. Last year, the markets of Hansa and AlphaBay were also compromised by the Dutch police. AlphaBay’s manager committed suicide in a Thai prison.
Working as a cyber security solutions architect, Alisa focuses on application and network security. Before joining us she held a cyber security researcher positions within a variety of cyber security start-ups. She also experience in different industry domains like finance, healthcare and consumer products.
