Just as criminals conduct business in the dark allies of cities, they also trade in illicit products such as drugs, guns, and counterfeit documents through online bazaars hidden behind anonymizing technology in a place known as the darknet. Last month, law enforcement agencies led by U.S. and Dutch authorities took down two of the largest known darknet marketplaces, AlphaBay and Hansa Market, with Europol facilitating the international coordinated effort. The Cipher Brief’s Levi Maxey spoke with Robert Wainwright, the Executive Director of Europol, about how the operation to take down AlphaBay and Hansa played out and why international cooperation is so important in disrupting criminal marketplaces online.
The Cipher Brief: What were AlphaBay and Hansa Market, and why are such illicit marketplaces a serious security risk? Are their products primarily for petty criminals, or does this facilitate transnational organized crime and possibly even terrorism?
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