An alarming 2.7 million people (as of April) are using the Dark Web every day, and the report warns that many criminal activities are being carried out on the network.
Data collected by niche news publication BanklessTimes.com showed that 56.8 percent of Dark Web activities are unlawful in some form, despite its original purpose is to provide individuals access to a censorship-free internet where governments or any other parties cannot track them.
According to estimates, over 50% of daily Dark Web users in 2023 are expected to have engaged in criminal activity. The researchers noted that “as of April 2023, this figure rose by 200,000 to 2.7 million daily Dark web users,” which is a worrying increase.
Among individuals who claimed familiarity with the Dark Web, those from BRICS countries had the largest share, at 28%.
The second highest percentage of respondents who reported having some experience with the dark web were located in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific area, at 26%. The report found that the global average was 24%, with the Middle East and Africa at 23%.
Some users on the black web engage in more legitimate activities, such as assisting researchers in locating relevant material or assisting people of different nations in gaining access to uncensored information.
Products and services that are illegal in most countries are for sale on the Dark Web market. In 2022, 50 logins for the popular payment service PayPal will sell for just $200.
Hacked cryptocurrency accounts, another popular product, are also getting more inexpensive. Kraken confirmed accounts went from $810 in 2021 to $250 in 2022, and Coinbase verified accounts dropped from $610 to $120, the research stated.
While direct “high-quality” malware assaults against an individual in Europe cost $1,800 per 1,000 installs, “medium-quality” attacks with a 70% success rate cost only $1,200 per 1,000 installs in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.