David Hétu, Chief Research Office at Flare Systems investigated and presented the state of the cryptomarkets since one of the biggest illicit market shut down, Empire Market. Replay the webinar to learn more about the underground economy.
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Empire Market was launched in January 2018 and quickly became the most popular dark web illicit market with a reported membership of over 1 million. In late August 2020, the administrators of Empire Market stole over $30 million USD from their participants’ deposit funds and closed the market with no warning. The sudden shut down of the market created chaos in the criminal underground and a need for malicious actors to find a new home to buy and sell illicit goods and services.
In this webinar, we explain the impacts of market shut downs such as that of Empire Market on malicious actors as well as security teams gathering intelligence on the dark web. We therefore discuss:
- The economic impacts of the theft of participants’ deposits on malicious actors’ activities
- The winners and losers from the disappearance of Empire Market
- How to adapt dark web monitoring to the new criminal underground
Participants to this webinar will gain deep inside knowledge of the criminal underground organization. Participants will also learn how to adapt their dark web monitoring to ongoing events in the dark web to maintain their coverage of malicious actors.
About the Speaker
David Hétu – Chief Research Officer at Flare Systems
As Director of Research, David leads scientific research operations at Flare Systems. A PhD in criminology from the Université de Montréal, he focuses his research on illicit markets on the internet and the dark net. His findings, published in over 40 articles over the last 10 years, have provided insights into the structure and inner workings of the criminal underground.
