Reuters: After mass shooting, German police focus on "dark net" crime

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-cyber-idUSKCN1071KW

German police will do more to fight crime committed on the "dark net", they said on Wednesday, days after a gunman killed nine people with a weapon bought on that hidden part of the internet.

"We see that the dark net is a growing trading place and therefore we need to prioritize our investigations here," Holger Muench, head of Germany's Federal Police (BKA), told journalists as he presented the latest annual report on cyber crime.

The dark net, which is only accessible via special web browsers, is increasingly used to procure drugs, weapons and counterfeit money, allowing users to trade anonymously and pay with digital currencies such as Bitcoin, the BKA said.

The man who killed nine people at a shopping mall in Munich on Friday was a local 18-year-old obsessed with mass killings who had bought his reactivated 9mm Glock 17 pistol on the dark web, Bavarian officials said.

The BKA said it had taken five market places in the dark net out of circulation last year. Muench said the BKA did not just want to take the sites offline but also catch criminals using them.

Cyber crime cost Germany 40.5 million euros ($44.5 million) last year, the BKA's report said, a rise of 2.8 percent. Most of the more than 45,000 cases involved computer fraud.

Muench said the figures only represented a small part of the true size of cyber crime.

"If we look ahead we see little relief," he said. "Cyber crime is still a growing phenomenon - you could say almost a growing business, even a growing industry."

Police solved 32.8 percent of cyber crime last year, Muench said, adding that many crimes do not get past the exploratory phase and others go unnoticed or are not reported.


Comments


[21 Points] octomarvel:

It took out 5 marketplaces last year?

Yeah okay. Better for them to think that than try to take out 5 this year I guess.

=)


[12 Points] maxturbator:

I know it's a terrible article. I do. But I cannot stress enough how fucked it is that I get downvoted everytime I try to warn people about EU orders, specifically from Germany and NL.

No average user should be risking their life to save a few dollars ordering international. It's not normally smart and it is fucking stupid right now. Downvote away!!! And keep riding that EU dick right in to your prison cell.


[7 Points] mejuwi1:

Fucking terrorists.


[4 Points] None:

so instead of actually doing something about the hundreds if not thousands of known terrorist sympathizers likely to commit attacks currently in germany they are going to go after darknet markets?

germany is a joke and it seems the government, police, and the general population are all so fucking deluded about how bad their situation is. its only going to get worse.


[3 Points] Renvyus:

Markets should seriously take the weapon part out of their site, it draws too much attention to us innocent buyers hehe


[1 Points] psychotropicnexus:

I just wish all of our currently popular markets banned the sale of weapons (and credit card, but that's not as serious), so we mostly just have people that want to buy drugs with no intention of harming anyone (except maybe themselves).


[2 Points] blitzzerg:

they should make differents markets to buy guns, and leave the rest outside this terrorist shit


[2 Points] SyrupSIppinXannyPop:

5 markets huh? Same way a fucking ki = 56 million on the street.


[3 Points] TheRealRocketship:

False flag


[1 Points] FookHyu:

5? So Shinyflakes, Xtc love, what else? Maybe Nuc and EIC?


[1 Points] anon1901:

The BKA said it had taken five market places in the dark net out of circulation last year

What markets did they take down?


[1 Points] Darknettoker:

Fight the darknet? hahaha ok pal.


[1 Points] nuhyM:

That's why weapons listings are banned on many dnm's.


[1 Points] TheNodManOut:

come October/November that's when I expect another operation like onymous or whatever around. Don't think they tilted there hats at ulbritch and said we're done they're collecting as much data as possible for the next rounds. Why you keep you opsec tight. VM<VPN>TOR


[0 Points] None:

[deleted]


[0 Points] Devoid_:

If they could have shut it down they would have. If you think they haven't been going after the markets previously your a fool. It's a PR stunt


[0 Points] BLACKBUSINES:

Thank you. I've been trying to wrap my head around this for a long time. On the streets there is a natural progression from selling small to selling bulk. Once you have made it to selling bulk you NEVER deal with baseline users anymore. This is ALWAYS the reason people get fucked. Some dumb fuck street level user fucks up and starts the trail leading upwards. I truly believe the reason that the DNMs have this ever rotating cycle of "big vendors" is that no one follows this simple rule that has been around since Jesus realized he could flip a massive profit turning water into wine. lol