Tag: dark web

Tor Project received $2.5M from the US government to bolster privacy

The US government contributed over $2.5 million to the Tor Project in its 2023–2024 fiscal year, marking a continued but reduced financial relationship with the privacy-focused nonprofit.

The funds represent 35% of Tor’s $7.28 million in reported revenue, according to newly released financial disclosures.

The funding, primarily sourced through the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), supports multiple high-impact projects aimed at strengthening internet freedom, especially in regions experiencing heavy censorship. The largest single contributor was DRL, providing $2.12 million. These funds were allocated across several major initiatives, including expanding Tor access in China, Hong Kong, and Tibet; developing a Tor-based VPN client for Android; combating malicious Tor relays; and migrating core network infrastructure to a more secure Rust-based implementation (Arti).

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Proton launches observatory to shed light on dark web crimes

Internet privacy company Proton launched a service on Thursday aimed at shedding light on cybercrimes by revealing new data breaches as stolen data turns up on the dark web.

Switzerland-based Proton, known for its encrypted email and virtual private network services, said it was kicking off its new Data Breach Observatory with data drawn directly from the dark web — a hidden part of the internet where criminals trade in stolen data.

Since the start of this year alone, the company said it had detected nearly 800 notable breaches in single, identifiable companies, leaving more than 300 million individual records exposed.

If it had included the countless compilations of data from multiple breaches found on the dark web, “the true scale of exposed records Proton uncovered in 2025 is actually closer to 1,571 incidents with hundreds of billions of records”, it said.

Going forward, the company said it would update the Data Breach Observatory “in near real time”, and would publish details of newly-discovered breaches “whether or not the companies involved have chosen to be transparent with their users”.

Proton said there was a dire need for these observations, pointing out that while many people are aware that cybercrime is on the rise, facts have so far been hard to come by.

Instead, they rely mainly on self-disclosure by affected companies, who may opt to hide breaches out of embarrassment.

The dark web, which is inaccessible via standard browsers, is often used by criminals as a marketplace for illicit activities.

The trading in stolen personal information there, including financial details and login credentials, creates a significant and largely hidden threat to both individuals and businesses, Proton said.

The Swiss company said its research had found that small- and medium-sized businesses were most impacted.

Companies with 10–249 employees accounted for nearly half of all breach incidents, while businesses with fewer than 10 employees made up 23 percent, it said.

As for the stolen information being traded on the dark web, Proton said email addresses, names and contact information were the most exposed, followed by passwords and sensitive information like government and health records.

Proton said its observatory would generate timely reports of emerging data breaches, enabling it to alert affected businesses and organisations potentially before they are even aware of a leak.

The reports would help them secure systems, protect against further attacks and alert their customers.

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‘Catastrophic’ attack as Russians hack files on EIGHT MoD bases and post them on the dark web

Russian hackers have stolen hundreds of sensitive military documents containing details of eight RAF and Royal Navy bases as well as Ministry of Defence staff names and emails – and posted them on the dark web, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

In what has been described as a ‘catastrophic’ security breach, cybercriminals accessed the cache of files by hacking a maintenance and construction contractor used by the MoD.

The ‘gateway’ attack – which targeted third party the Dodd Group – allowed cyber gangsters to circumvent the almost impenetrable cyber defences used by the Armed Forces.  

The MoD said it was investigating the enormous data and security breach, believed to have been carried out by Russian group Lynx.

Leaked documents seen by the MoS disclose information about a number of sensitive RAF and Navy bases, including RAF Lakenheath, in Suffolk, where the US Air Force’s F-35 stealth jets are based and their nuclear bombs are believed to be housed.

Other bases include RAF Portreath – a top-secret radar station that forms part of Nato‘s air defence network – and RAF Predannack, now home to the UK’s National Drone Hub.

Details of contractors’ names, car registrations and mobile numbers, as well as MoD personnel’s names and email addresses, have also been uploaded. Some documents are marked ‘Controlled’ or ‘Official Sensitive’.

The disclosure follows a warning from the National Cyber Security Centre last week that the number of significant hacking attacks in the UK have reached a record high, with 204 taking place in the year to September.

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Trump’s Justice Department Takes Down Dark Web Child Abuse Network — 120,000 Users, Millions of Files in Operation Grayskull

In one of the most aggressive and successful anti-child exploitation crackdowns in U.S. history, President Trump’s Justice Department has revealed the results of Operation Grayskull, a sweeping, international strike that dismantled four high-traffic dark web platforms trafficking violent child sexual abuse materials, exposing a digital cesspool that included over 120,000 registered users and millions of illicit files.

To date, 18 individuals have been convicted in federal court, receiving a combined 300+ years in prison.

The Justice Department detailed how Thomas Peter Katsampes, 52, of Minnesota, became a staff member on one of these despicable sites, personally distributing CSAM, guiding others on how to do so, and helping manage operations. He was sentenced to over 20 years in prison, lifetime supervision, and forced to pay restitution to his victims.

But he was only one of many.

Among the 18 convicted predators:

  • William Michael Spearman of Alabama was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a child exploitation enterprise.
  • Joseph Addison Martin of Washington got 42 years.
  • Keith David McIntosh of Michigan was sentenced to a staggering 55 years, with a prior conviction on record.
  • Selwyn David Rosenstein of Florida was handed 28 years and a six-figure restitution order for his crimes.

Each of these individuals was found guilty of actively operating or contributing to some of the darkest, most vile content imaginable, and doing so in a highly coordinated and secretive online network.

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FBI Says Global Operation Led to 270 Arrests Targeting Dark-Web Drug Trafficking

The FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday announced that 270 people were arrested and that hundreds of pounds of fentanyl were seized as part of an operation targeting drug traffickers on darknet websites.

The arrests were made in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States under “Operation RapTor,” according to the FBI. The name of the operation refers to the Tor software and browser that allows for anonymous web browsing and to access darkweb, or darknet, websites that are normally not accessible through standard browsers or search engines.

In a statement, the DOJ said that “more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, 144 kilograms [317 lbs] of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms” were also seized in the operation.

FBI officials noted that one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of fentanyl has the potential to kill up to 500,000 people. That drug has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States over the past decade or so, and it’s currently the leading cause of overdose deaths in the country, federal health officials say.

“By cowardly hiding online, these traffickers have wreaked havoc across our country and directly fueled the fentanyl crisis and gun violence impacting our American communities and neighborhoods,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on Thursday. “But the ease and accessibility of their crimes ends today.”

An operation targeting an apartment in Los Angeles that was being used as a hub to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine on the dark web also led to the seizure of “large amounts of cash and suspected drugs,” the FBI said.

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Two Million User International Paedophile Child Porn Ring Busted by Europol

A massive international pedophile network spanning across over 30 countries was shut down, and dozens of arrests were made relating to child pornography, the Europol police agency announced on Wednesday.

The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation said that the Darknet child porn platform “Kidflix” has been shut down under the direction of the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office in Germany.

Europol said that the platform had an estimated 1.8 million users throughout the world, with investigations being coordinated across 35 counties.

So far, 79 people have been arrested and nearly 1,400 further suspects have been identified, over one hundred of whom were located in Germany, broadcaster NTV reports.

The platform, which was created in 2021, is said to have been one of the largest of its kind in the world and the largest to date to have existed in Europe.

According to the investigators, the site had over 91,000 child porn videos before it was shut down, with an average of three and half videos being uploaded to the site every hour. In exchange for paying a fee to the site, users were able to stream and upload videos of child sex abuse.

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