In Australia there is a disproportionately high level of cryptomarket drug trading. In a survey conducted by Martin (2018) it was noted that vendors often entered the trade when a friend introduced them, selling due to financial difficulties and the latter, some vendors stated they felt a buzz from their work. A famous well known case study was Silk Road.

How Crypto Markets Escalated?

Silk Road was a digital black market platform that was popular for many illegal activities. Silk Road was regarded as the first dark web market, and was launched in 2011 by Ross William Ulbricht.

Although it was the first drug cryptomarket it was shut down two years later in 2013 by the FBI. Silk Road enabled many individuals to buy and sell drugs anonymously anywhere in the world, as long as the users of Silk Road were using a certain anonymising software and knew the exact address to the site.

This site was also often used for other forms of contraband, such as false identifications and was based around a currency known as bitcoins.

According to Van Hout and Bingham (2013) it was suggested through surveys conducted that vendors of Silk Road sold drugs via this platform due to the ease of setting up, low risk and secure deb web infrastructure.

Buyers utilised this site for many of the same reasons, they found that the drugs they were buying were of a better quality and more pure. As well as the protection of their identity when buying the illicit substances.

In terms of demographics, it was found that men were the predominant buyers and vendors. It ranged from men in professional employment to tertiary education. The preferred substances were noted as MDMA, Mephedrone, Nitrous Oxide, Ketamine, Cannabis and Cocaine.

Under the many layers of crime that formed from the production of Silk road, it is said Silk Road served some benefits, such as the quality of drugs which is briefly mentioned above, but also a lot less violence when purchasing through the anonymous site.

Responding to the Drug Crypto Markets

Silk road involved the commission of numerous offences linked by a common purpose, and because of sites like this, it creates little to no distinction between online and offline crimes and how these are responded to. With most digital crimes there is a shortage of knowledge and enforcement. This is because of the lack of education as well as the jurisdictional issues.

Within the Dark Web there is a myth which is subject to a large debate, of so called red rooms. This is said to be a place where people who have access, pay money in order to see people tortured, murdered and raped. This can be done through videos or livestreams. With that being said, there is actually no proof or evidence that these so called 'red rooms' even exist.

The reason for this being, it is extremely difficult to verify the existence of red rooms, but even the navigation of the dark web has proven to be very hard to monitor. It is impossible to search specific sites on the dark web using traditional search engines like google and safari.

The Infamous Dark Web

The Dark Web also known as the Dark Net is a 'site' the exists on networks that use the internet but require a specific software to access them. The Dark Web is part of the internet that isn't visible to search engines and requires the use of an anonymising browser called 'Tor' to be accessed.

The Dark Web is used for a number of illegal things such as selling and buying of drugs, pornography and more click here for a video explaining the dark web in a nutshell.

The Dark Web is unseen to most people, that being because it requires a specific software to access it. The US Government initially used this in order to can intel and exchange information. However, in the 1990's it was released to the public.

In 2019 a study into the web of profit, conducted by Dr. Michael McGuires showed that things have become much worse. It was noted that the number of Dark Web listings that could harm enterprises has risen by 20% since 2016.

Thomas Rid and Daniel Moore were researchers who also had conducted a study and found that of 2,723 live dark web sites in a five week period 57% of that host illicit materials.

The Dark Web and Australia

In Australia, counterfeit Australian identity documents, especially drivers licenses rank highly on the most frequently listed and sold identity documents on the dark web. These documents are used by crime rings, and are used for a wide range of illicit activities.

Dr Ciara Devlin has found that Australian Documents are some of the most common products listed for sale. Through visually profiling 43 fraudulent documents, including the way the security features are replicated it was found that 88% could be linked to at least one other document. Throughout this research Dr Devlin aimed to inform law enforcement and security organisations to help target their efforts towards specific types of fraud.

As mentioned above, there is many challenges such as the volume of people using the dark web and lacking resources to control it, globalisation is another big problem, due to the activity on the site crossing state and national boundaries which creates jurisdictional issues for law enforcement. In order to combat these challenges, the following responses were put in place.

What is Our Response to The Dark Web?

There are many things that have been implemented to help inform and educate on the dark web. This was put in place to help officers, this was done by undergoing training, sharing information, researching ways to modernize laws and researching on crime connections to help law enforcement recognise the highly visible traditional crime and the less visible on the dark web.

A Sydney man has been jailed for two years after stealing more than $100,000 in illegal SMS phishing scams which targeted 450 victims. Police believe the scam started in 2018 and targeted customers of several banks and a telecommunication company.

The man used these webpages to lure Australia victims to enter their personal information, which in turn would be used to access their telephone accounts, bank accounts and create new accounts without their knowledge.

The AFP worked with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Telstra to identify victims who had entered information into these fake web pages.

So What is Phishing?

Phishing is defined as allowing others to steal confidential information through masquerading as a large organisation, or a trusted contact. These can be sent via email, SMS, instant messaging and social media platform.

So What is The Harm of Phishing?

Phishing looks legitimate, which truly fools more people than you think, then captures confidential information. These attacks are becoming increasingly more frequent and more difficult to detect.

Phishers use techniques to lure their victims in acts of illegally utilising a public or trustworthy organisation. In turn this deceives people into revealing sensitive information.

Generally, by the time people discover they are a victim of this online fraud there information has already usually been sold and stored. Everyone is vulnerable to phishing, however those who have a lack of digital knowledge and are not educated on this are more than likely to fall victim to this cyber crime.

A Phishing Frenzy in Australia

Phishing was the most prevalent form of scam in Australia in 2022, with over 74.5 thousand incidents reported.

In Australia, the latest figures reveal phishing is a practice that is only becoming more widespread. Some of the more common lures used by these cyber criminals is doctoring things such as Netflix to update payment details or receiving an email which is said to be from the Australian Taxation Office.

Mr Craig McDonald is the founder of Australian Cyber Security has stated that amongst phishing being the most reported scam in 2022, the total financial losses from this is $157.6 million dollars. Mr McDonald stated that one of the easiest ways to spot a scam is by looking for typos and grammatical errors.

How Can we Respond and Prevent Phishing?

This cybercrime can be somehow deterred by educating and informing people about it. This could be specifically targeted at the more vulnerable community such as the elderly and young teens.

Furthermore, it is crucial that people are aware to limit what they share online, such as photos, make sure account settings are set to private and personal information is secure. Most common apps, sites and social media now offer a 2-step factor authentication which is also a deterrent.

Other responses are of a more practical and educational area, this could be people promoting there real life stories and courses for the less experiences internet users to avoid this online fraud.

The Government has a website that is aligned to strengthen community awareness and safety. Click here

It is no doubt that phishing is always be an issue whilst the digital world is growing and changing, however with the right education and support it can help minimise the amount of online fraud. 

The Celebgate scandal took place in 2014, it was an incident where nude celebrity photos were leaked of a number of celebrities and it is said to be one of the largest iCloud breaches yet.

Ryan Collins was a 36-year-old Pennsylvania man was charged in march for his part in the hacking and distribution of hundreds of nude photos of female celebrities.

Collins used a method of gaining access to password-protected accounts that can victimize pretty much anyone. In today's society we live heavily in a celebrity culture, this breach has generated a lot of heated media attention, apart from the security issues it also caused more issues with insecurity.

Different platforms all responded with different stances and worked towards removing the leaked content. Most of the celebrities involved initiated requests for removal.

Celebgate is a form of image based abuse and is a common problem across the nation. With social media and the internet growing more and more every single day.

What is Image Based Abuse and its Relation to Celebgate

Image Based Abuse is when a person shares, or threatens to share an intimate image or video of a person without there consent. This image or video can show or appear to show a person's genital area or anal area, a person's breast, a private activity such as someone undressing or engaging in sexual activity. These images or videos can be real or altered to look like an individual.

Image based sexual abuse refers to three key behaviours, these being the non consensual creation (or taking) of nude or sexual images, the non consensual distribution (or sharing) of the images and threats to share nude or sexual images (Henry and Flynn 2019)

And the impacts of image based abuse can have large effects on both the mental and physical aspects of people's lives. As mentioned above in the Celebgate case. It takes away the individuals security and privacy and can have long lasting effects in the individual.

Research has shown this type of online harassment is becoming a more concerning issue. In research conducted in 2022, majority say this kind of online harassment is a major problem with 41% of people have personally experienced this. Roughly two-thirds of adults under 30 have been harassed in some form online.

Research has also shown that this kind of online abuse has also increased due to the effects of Covid-19 and the social isolation caused due to the pandemic which had large changes to people's social environments.

How Can Celebgate Help us Respond to Image Based Abuse

Like most digital crime, the police face many challenges in responding to these crimes, the internet is such a globalised platform which causes many jurisdictional issues as well as a lack of evidence, however there is some steps to respond to this cyber crime.

Image Based Abuse can be responded to by ensuring that the abuse is reported, the eSafety commission is a internet site that is designed to help with these situations, eSafety can help to remove the content or stop the threats. Another response is to collect evidence, such as what happened, where and when and proof of what has happened. Then immediately stop further contact with the offender.

On March 15 2019, 28-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant attacked the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand. Tarrant opened fire at the mosque all whilst live streaming on facebook. This is known as a performance crime.

Social media create a spectacle society that makes it easier for terrorists to achieve notoriety. The mass-shooting in Christchurch is notable for using live streaming technology to broadcast the horrific crime.

The use of social media technology and livestreaming marks the attack as different from many other terrorist attacks. This is because it is a form of a violent performance crime. The Christchurch attack was a brutal, planned mass murder of a religious group on New Zealand.

What is Performance Crime?

Performance crime refers to an illegal act that has been committed with the intended purpose of having an audience witness the crime. As mentioned above this type of crime is generally recorded and uploaded or live streamed via a social media platform.

There are many kinds of performance crimes and it is more common than people think, unfortunately the attack on the people in Christchurch is not the first instance of this, in 2017 there was a sickening video of an elderly man being murdered in Ohio, this video was then uploaded to facebook.

It is believed that this 'culture' behind performance crimes comes from the need to be seen. As many people are aware, once a video is out on social media, the likelihood of stopping these videos circulating is almost impossible. Many people seem to think that technology and media enables offending. Instead of thinking about the media and its influence on crime, we need to think about the audience and then the criminal behaviour.

Law enforcement try to police the issue of social media performances, however, as like most digital crimes, there is a lack of funding and education to prevent and identify the offenders of these crimes. The use of social media also makes it hard to track peoples online usage due to the growing population of people using these social media sites.

Responses to Performance Crime

In responding to performance crime, being 'reactive' by tracking down offenders after they have posted something online, as performance crime is often self-incriminating. Also being proactive, by determining what the role of social media is in removing these performance crimes whilst they are being live streamed and finally deterring this type of crime by introducing legislation that criminalizes the filming of violent content.

In terms of technological solutions, it is possible to design platforms that dissuade users from abuse and harassment practices and encourage mutual care. It would also be beneficial to emphasize the need for social media platforms to encourage positive and beneficial interactions between users. With most social media platforms there are often multiple uses for the platforms, and by ensuring these are used for a moral purpose would be indicative of a positive response towards this digital crime.