Daily visitors to the Dark Web are exploding with over 2.7 million users; Illegal activity on the rise

Although the Dark Web covers only an estimated 5 percent of the entire Internet, it has an alarming 2.7 million daily users (as of April) and an alarming amount of illegal activity, the report warns.

While it’s supposed to give people access to a censorship-free Internet where governments or other parties can’t track them, data obtained by niche news publisher BanklessTimes.com revealed that 56.8 percent of Dark Web activity is actually illegal in some way.

“Therefore, it is estimated that more than half of the 2.5 million daily visitors to the Dark Web in 2023 will have engaged in illegal activity. Even more alarmingly, this number is on the rise, by April 2023, this number rose from 200,000 to 2.7 million daily visitors to the Dark Web – to the user,” the report stated.

Those most familiar with the Dark Web are from the BRICS countries – 28 percent of those who mentioned being familiar with it.

Latin America and Asia Pacific were next, with 26 percent of respondents claiming to be familiar with the dark web. The Middle East and Africa accounted for 23 percent, compared to the global average of 24 percent, the report said.

The dark web has many functions, and some people use it for more legitimate reasons, such as citizens of different countries who want to access uncensored information or help researchers find the right information.

Dark Web markets are listed with many illegal goods and services. The most listed items on the market are sign up for a paypal account – 50 accounts cost only $200 in 2022.

Another common product offered is hacked crypto accounts, which are becoming more affordable.

Kraken’s verified account price dropped from $810 in 2021 to just $250 in 2022, while Coinbase’s figures dropped from $610 to $120, according to the report.

Direct “high-quality” malware attacks against someone in Europe cost $1,800 per thousand installs, while “medium-quality” attacks in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia with a 70 percent success rate cost $1,200 per 1,000 installs.

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