Dr. Olga Smirnova recently published a White Paper, “The Representation of Victim Nations in Stolen Data Markets” (https://cj.msu.edu/assets/CINA-White_Papers-Smirnova_Geo_Distribution.pdf) as part of the work on social network analysis of hacker communities:
“The cybercriminals sell stolen data on various online platforms such as Open Web and Dark Web forums. To this date, there is limited research on the types of products sold on the “Dark Web”. This brief reports geographic distribution of victim nations differences between Open and Dark web forums. The criminals tend to advertise in line with their perceptions of detection. The forums where advertisements occur have larger impact on prices and types of exchanges than the geographical locations where the data comes from.”
The project was funded by a DHS grant, through the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, as part of the Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Center (CINA) led by George Mason University.
