One of the largest darknet marketplaces, AlphaBay, has been active since 2014, and in 2017 it was eliminated by law enforcement agencies, along with another large marketplace, Hansa Market. Then the closure of AlphaBay and Hansa Market was the result of a major international operation involving the United States, Canada, Thailand, Holland, Great Britain, France, Lithuania, as well as representatives of Europol, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to the FBI, AlphaBay was ten times the size of the infamous Silk Road. The trading platform was used by 200,000 users and 40,000 sellers. At the same time, AlphaBay had more than 250,000 ads for the sale of drugs, more than 100,000 ads for the sale of stolen or forged identification documents and access devices, counterfeit goods, malware and other hacker tools and services.
Shortly before AlphaBay's liquidation, a 25-year-old Canadian citizen, Alexandre Cazes, was arrested in Thailand, who was considered one of the leaders of the resource, known under the nickname Alpha02. Shortly after his arrest, on July 12, 2017, Kaz committed suicide in a Thai prison.
However, another administrator of the resource, who was responsible for security and known under the nickname DeSnake, did not fall into the hands of law enforcement officers, and remained at large all these years.
Now, Bleeping Computer reports that at the end of last week, DeSnake unexpectedly announced on the forum that AlphaBay has reopened and is ready to go. To verify his identity, DeSnake attached the original PGP public key that he used during the heyday of the marketplace to his message.
Journalists note that one of the forum users has already confirmed the DeSnake key and the fact that he was part of the AlphaBay team. Another user also confirmed the administrator's identity, talking to him about "things that only an AlphaBay employee could know."
In a lengthy statement, DeSnake explains that he would like to set new standards and build a " professionally managed, anonymous, secure marketplace." He writes that he wants to create an autonomous and anonymous decentralized network of trading platforms, where everyone can open their own marketplace. Judging by the description, it will be similar to Amazon for the darknet, where sellers and buyers will be able to move from one store to another using one account and not trusting any of them with their cryptocurrency.
DeSnake assures that the new AlphaBay is designed for a long service life, uses secure and verified code, bulletproof servers and means of protecting against failures that can be caused by both equipment failures and police raids.
It also advertises the AlphaGuard automated system, which "ensures that users/sellers can access funds in their wallet (including escrow) at any time via I2P/Tor", and an automatic dispute resolution system, which aims to resolve problems between buyers and sellers without the intervention of moderators.
DeSnake outlined a brief set of rules for the updated AlphaBay, which should help avoid unnecessary attention from law enforcement agencies. :
Journalists note that AlphaBay now uses only the Monero cryptocurrency, and currently only two products are put up for sale, and in both cases these are drugs. Forum statistics show that so far, the updated AlphaBay has 19 members who have exchanged 72 messages.
Source: https://xakep.ru/2021/08/13/alphabay-alive/
The administrator of the underground trading platform AlphaBay, using the pseudonym DeSnake, has returned to work again. More than four years ago, the US Department of Justice announced the closure of the AlphaBay platform. Thai police arrested 26-year-old website administrator Alexander Cazes in Bangkok, and the FBI seized control of AlphaBay's central server in Lithuania, neutralizing the underground market. But the fate of one key black market participant was never resolved — the second AlphaBay administrator under the pseudonym DeSnake.
Now DeSnake has relaunched AlphaBay under his leadership. As the administrator said in an interview with WIRED, he left unscathed after the collapse of AlphaBay and intends to revive the former glory of the underground market.
The revived version of AlphaBay requires users to buy and sell goods only for the Monero cryptocurrency, which is much harder to track than Bitcoin. The AlphaBay website on the darknet is now accessible not only through Tor, as before, but also through the less popular I2P anonymity system.
According to DeSnake, his work computers have an operating system that "suffers from amnesia", such as the security-oriented Linux distribution Tails, which is not intended for data storage. According to the administrator, it does not store any compromising data on hard drives or USB drives, in encrypted or unencrypted form. DeSnake has also prepared a USB-based" emergency shutdown " device designed to clear the memory of his computers and shut them down in seconds if they ever get out of his control.
But all these technical and operational defenses may be less important than just geographical ones. According to DeSnake, he is in a country where extradition is not carried out, out of the reach of US law enforcement agencies.
DeSnake wants to attract users with the promise of a yet-to-be-tested system, which it calls AlphaGuard. The system allows users to withdraw their funds even if the authorities take control of AlphaBay's servers again.
As DeSnake describes, AlphaGuard automatically rents and configures new servers if it detects that AlphaBay is shutting down. The administrator claims that AlphaGuard will automatically hack into other websites and place data on their servers, providing users with "withdrawal codes" that they can use to save cryptocurrencies stored on AlphaBay.
DeSnake is also in the early stages of implementing a fully decentralized marketplace system. In this scenario, programmers and server operators will receive a portion of their profits from hosting markets, which form a vast dark web with no single point of failure.
www.wired.com
The darknet market operator is becoming one of the most wanted people in the world. Authorities are trying to track him down in an exciting operation. This is the story of the capture of AlphaBay administrator Alexander Kazes.
According to the FBI, AlphaBay was ten times the size of the infamous Silk Road. The trading platform was used by 200,000 users and 40,000 sellers. At the same time, AlphaBay had more than 250,000 ads for the sale of drugs, more than 100,000 ads for the sale of stolen or forged identification documents and access devices, counterfeit goods, malware and other hacker tools and services.
Shortly before AlphaBay's liquidation, a 25-year-old Canadian citizen, Alexandre Cazes, was arrested in Thailand, who was considered one of the leaders of the resource, known under the nickname Alpha02. Shortly after his arrest, on July 12, 2017, Kaz committed suicide in a Thai prison.
However, another administrator of the resource, who was responsible for security and known under the nickname DeSnake, did not fall into the hands of law enforcement officers, and remained at large all these years.
Now, Bleeping Computer reports that at the end of last week, DeSnake unexpectedly announced on the forum that AlphaBay has reopened and is ready to go. To verify his identity, DeSnake attached the original PGP public key that he used during the heyday of the marketplace to his message.
Journalists note that one of the forum users has already confirmed the DeSnake key and the fact that he was part of the AlphaBay team. Another user also confirmed the administrator's identity, talking to him about "things that only an AlphaBay employee could know."
In a lengthy statement, DeSnake explains that he would like to set new standards and build a " professionally managed, anonymous, secure marketplace." He writes that he wants to create an autonomous and anonymous decentralized network of trading platforms, where everyone can open their own marketplace. Judging by the description, it will be similar to Amazon for the darknet, where sellers and buyers will be able to move from one store to another using one account and not trusting any of them with their cryptocurrency.
DeSnake assures that the new AlphaBay is designed for a long service life, uses secure and verified code, bulletproof servers and means of protecting against failures that can be caused by both equipment failures and police raids.
It also advertises the AlphaGuard automated system, which "ensures that users/sellers can access funds in their wallet (including escrow) at any time via I2P/Tor", and an automatic dispute resolution system, which aims to resolve problems between buyers and sellers without the intervention of moderators.
DeSnake outlined a brief set of rules for the updated AlphaBay, which should help avoid unnecessary attention from law enforcement agencies. :
- It is forbidden to harm other people (search for hired killers and so on);
- It is forbidden to discuss weapons (even in self-defense);
- No erotica/porn in any form (logins for the main sites are allowed);
- No fentanyl or fentanyl-infused/fentanyl-based substances;
- No vaccines for COVID-19;
- No to doxing and doxing threats;
- Any activity related to Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan (people, organizations, governments), as well as data of citizens of these countries is prohibited;
- It is forbidden to sell ransomware, search for access brokers to deploy ransomware, or discuss ransomware.
Journalists note that AlphaBay now uses only the Monero cryptocurrency, and currently only two products are put up for sale, and in both cases these are drugs. Forum statistics show that so far, the updated AlphaBay has 19 members who have exchanged 72 messages.
Source: https://xakep.ru/2021/08/13/alphabay-alive/
The administrator of the underground trading platform AlphaBay, using the pseudonym DeSnake, has returned to work again. More than four years ago, the US Department of Justice announced the closure of the AlphaBay platform. Thai police arrested 26-year-old website administrator Alexander Cazes in Bangkok, and the FBI seized control of AlphaBay's central server in Lithuania, neutralizing the underground market. But the fate of one key black market participant was never resolved — the second AlphaBay administrator under the pseudonym DeSnake.
Now DeSnake has relaunched AlphaBay under his leadership. As the administrator said in an interview with WIRED, he left unscathed after the collapse of AlphaBay and intends to revive the former glory of the underground market.
The revived version of AlphaBay requires users to buy and sell goods only for the Monero cryptocurrency, which is much harder to track than Bitcoin. The AlphaBay website on the darknet is now accessible not only through Tor, as before, but also through the less popular I2P anonymity system.
According to DeSnake, his work computers have an operating system that "suffers from amnesia", such as the security-oriented Linux distribution Tails, which is not intended for data storage. According to the administrator, it does not store any compromising data on hard drives or USB drives, in encrypted or unencrypted form. DeSnake has also prepared a USB-based" emergency shutdown " device designed to clear the memory of his computers and shut them down in seconds if they ever get out of his control.
But all these technical and operational defenses may be less important than just geographical ones. According to DeSnake, he is in a country where extradition is not carried out, out of the reach of US law enforcement agencies.
DeSnake wants to attract users with the promise of a yet-to-be-tested system, which it calls AlphaGuard. The system allows users to withdraw their funds even if the authorities take control of AlphaBay's servers again.
As DeSnake describes, AlphaGuard automatically rents and configures new servers if it detects that AlphaBay is shutting down. The administrator claims that AlphaGuard will automatically hack into other websites and place data on their servers, providing users with "withdrawal codes" that they can use to save cryptocurrencies stored on AlphaBay.
DeSnake is also in the early stages of implementing a fully decentralized marketplace system. In this scenario, programmers and server operators will receive a portion of their profits from hosting markets, which form a vast dark web with no single point of failure.
He Escaped the Dark Web's Biggest Bust. Now He's Back
DeSnake apparently eluded the DOJ's takedown of AlphaBay. The admin talked to WIRED about his return—and the resurrection of the notorious underground marketplace.
The darknet market operator is becoming one of the most wanted people in the world. Authorities are trying to track him down in an exciting operation. This is the story of the capture of AlphaBay administrator Alexander Kazes.
