Searchlight Cyber teams with law enforcement to launch Dark Web Marketplace

Searchlight Cyber, a continuous threat exposure management company, has enhanced its dark web investigation platform, Cerberus, with a new Marketplace Search and Insights module. This new feature automatically collates data on dark web marketplaces with enhanced functionality for filtering based on investigation priorities.

The module gives investigators greater oversight of the dark web landscape, enables the prioritization of the highest-risk threats, and helps to combat online crime. The module already contains data on 140 marketplaces, and new markets will be added as they emerge.

Built in collaboration with its law enforcement customers, Searchlight Cyber’s new Marketplace Search and Insights module includes an easy-to-use dashboard that provides a top-level overview of each marketplace, including the number of market listings and vendors. Investigators then have the ability to filter the marketplaces by the types of goods being sold, when the marketplace was last active, and the geographies where products are being shipped to and from.

For example, of the 140 marketplaces currently in the module, it is possible to quickly ascertain that

• 76 percent of the marketplaces sell drugs, 49 percent sell stolen credit card data, and 11 percent sell weapons.

• 51 percent ship to the United Kingdom, 49 percent ship to the United States, and 45 percent ship to France.

• The marketplace “0day” appears to have been the most active so far this year, based on the number of active vendors.

Dave Osler, Head of Product at Searchlight Cyber, said, “Our new marketplace module was created to directly resolve one of our law enforcement customers’ greatest challenges: getting a high-level overview of dark web crime. A lack of oversight of all marketplaces made it difficult for law enforcement to identify the most serious crimes, narrow down their targets, and even apply for funding for resources to undertake their investigations. We always keep in mind that criminals use dark web marketplaces with the belief that this makes it more difficult for them to be found and prosecuted. Features like this one are helping to give the advantage back to law enforcement.”

A leading law enforcement official commented, “Identifying the admin and staff behind these marketplaces is the first step in all investigations, so having this done by Cerberus is a huge time-saver. The overview page also helps us determine whether to take a marketplace seriously or not in a blink of an eye. From there, we are able to focus our resources on tackling priority targets.”