Dark Web Statistics 2024 – By Country, Categories, Users Opinions, Available Dark Websites, Facts and The Average Price Index

Introduction

Dark Web Statistics: As a market research analyst specializing in the Dark Web, it's crucial to grasp the scale and significance of its activities. Recent data reveals that the Dark Web economy has grown substantially, with estimates suggesting a market value exceeding $1.5 trillion USD annually. This staggering figure underscores the immense size and impact of this hidden digital realm. Moreover, studies indicate that illegal goods and services constitute a significant portion of Dark Web transactions, comprising approximately 60% of all activity.

This prevalence of illicit trade underscores the challenges posed by cybercrime and underscores the need for vigilance in monitoring Dark Web activities. Understanding these statistics is vital for businesses and law enforcement agencies alike, as they seek to navigate the complexities of the digital underworld and mitigate associated risks.

Editor’s Choice

• The deep web and dark web together constitute a vast majority, accounting for 96% of the Internet, although the dark web is believed to be a smaller portion than the deep web.
• In 2023, there were more than 2.5 million daily visitors to the dark web on average, and this number increased to 2.7 million in April 2023.
• Germany surpassed the United States in daily Tor users in 2023, with the U.S. ranking second, followed by Finland, India, and Russia.
• Approximately 57% of the dark web contains illegal content as of 2020, including violence, extremist platforms, illegal marketplaces, drugs, and cybercrime forums.
• The most profitable illegal digital products on the dark web as of April 2023 include crypto accounts, online banking, and e-wallets.
• The U.S. leads in data breach costs, with an average of $9.44 million per breach.
• Cybercriminals can purchase credit card details with a $5,000 balance for just $110 as of April 2023.
• DDoS and malware attacks are prevalent on the dark web, with cybercriminals able to buy 1,000 threat installs for $1,800.
• Ransomware cryptocurrency-based crimes on the dark web saw a nearly $176 million increase in 2023 compared to 2022.
• Global cyberattacks increased by 38% in 2022 compared to 2021.
• Security measures on the dark web are improving, with stricter verification processes for forum access.
• Rating services are gaining popularity to identify trustworthy dark net markets amid frequent “exit scams.”
• While dark web scanning is not entirely effective, experts recommend changing passwords and enabling strong multifactor authentication if your data is found on the dark web.

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What is Dark Web?

As the name suggests, the dark web allows users to conduct dark activities on the internet without revealing their identity and location. The dark Web is the part of the internet that is not accessible typically. For example, today the listings we see on the browser are not part of the dark net, because, through these, your locations, identity, and other information can be easily grabbed. On the other hand, some websites that are not listed on the internet but are available at the back of the entire network are referred to as Dark Web. It includes many illegal activities such as hacking, information of criminals, selling of drugs, forged documents, steroids, counterfeit currency, unlicensed pharmaceuticals, and weapons, etc…

What Comprises of Dark Web?

(Source: idagent.com)

Surface Web (examples – Google, Wikipedia, eCommerce, YouTube, Blogs, Facebook, and alike)

• Includes 5% of the total content of the internet
• Accessible to users without using any special software
• Sites are indexed and ranked on search engines

Deep Web (Examples – Netbanking, Private forums, other unindexed sites, medical records, research papers, private networks, and alike)

• Includes 90% of the internet
• These sites can’t be accessed by search engines
• The data on the sites
• Example, baking information, credentials, payment information, etc…

Dark Web (Illegal Trade, private communication, privacy protection, and alike)

• 5% of the total content of the internet
• Is accessible only through Tor Browser
• Mostly used for illegal purposes
• Sites that are existent in the deep web

Facts About Dark Web

• Clones of ChatGPT have surfaced on the dark web, offering services like WormGPT for AI-driven phishing and FraudGPT for deceiving individuals, with prices starting as low as a couple hundred dollars a month.
• The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a dark web market for vaccine certifications, exploiting desperate individuals seeking vaccines and certificates, generating ongoing demand within the vaccine black market.
• Fentanyl has emerged as a lucrative commodity on the dark web, with instances of distributors selling fake oxycodone pills containing the drug. In 2023, Operation SpecTor seized 850 kilograms of drugs, including 64 kilograms of fentanyl, along with over $53 million in cash and cryptocurrency.
• Criminal empires, such as Hydra, have dominated the dark web, accounting for a significant share of darknet market-related cryptocurrency transactions, with Hydra alone amassing a net worth exceeding $5.2 billion before its seizure.
• The dark web, initially conceived for privacy and freedom of speech, continues to serve as a platform for secure communications and combatting censorship through services like SecureDrop and Ricochet Refresh.
• Illicit drugs, particularly cannabis and pharmaceuticals, constitute the majority of transactions on the dark web, with MDMA and LSD also contributing significantly to the market.
• Dark web criminal services range from low-end to high-end, with exploits typically priced below $10, while zero days can fetch upwards of $10,000 on darknet markets, with the majority of high-end trades occurring in private channels.
• Reputation is paramount on the dark web, with vendor reviews and dispute resolution services prevalent across cybercriminal marketplaces, with vendor licenses costing approximately $3,000.
• Cryptocurrency, due to its traceability challenges, dominates dark web transactions, accounting for 98% of transactions, surpassing $20 billion USD in 2022.
• Cybercrime education has become a product on the dark web, with seasoned criminals offering tutorials, playbooks, and courses to aspiring hackers.
• The Tor network, facilitating anonymity and privacy, comprises over 65,000 unique .onion URLs, providing various services such as communication forums, chat rooms, and marketplaces.
• Despite its association with illegal activities, studies suggest that over half of all domains on the dark web are legal, with major organizations like newspapers and the CIA maintaining hidden websites.
• Efforts to combat illicit activities on the dark web involve enhanced information sharing among law enforcement agencies globally and disrupting major marketplaces, alongside initiatives to regulate cryptocurrency transactions.
• Balancing privacy and free expression with the need to address illegal activities poses challenges for law enforcement and regulators regarding the dark web.

General Dark Web Statistics

• The hidden Web is 400 times larger than the internet we see today.
• The Dark Web is only a small part of the whole dark net.
• The exact size of the Dark Web is unknown, but approximately, it accounts for 5% of the internet.
• Dark Web Statistics state that 56.8% of the content on the dark net is illegal.
• Furthermore, reports say that 28% of the BRICS countries are familiar with the dark net.
• 1000 premium quality Malware attacks cost $5000 on the dark net.
• Phishing is one of the popular ways to collect financial data from the dark net.
• Unfortunately, credentials belonging to the technology industry have the highest number of exposed data on the internet.
• The United States of America accounts for 60% of the weapon sale on the dark net followed by Europe resulting in 25%.
• 60 of the biggest websites are more than 750 TB in size.
• 7 out of 10 requirements on the Dark Web are related to parties looking for contact with criminals.
• Qwerty and 123456 are two of the most common leaked password found on the dark net.
• The global dark web market is projected to reach $1.3 billion by 2028 at a CAGR of 22.3%.
• As of 2022, Hidden Wiki was the most popular Darknet Search engine.
• As of 2022, more than 1.2 million payment card insights were leaked to Dark Web.
• The leading eCommerce platforms such as Mercado Libre and Zalando have around 1,000 mentioned on the deep web as of December 2022.
• Moreover, in the United States of America, as of 2022 around 52% of the companies had in place a dark web threat intelligence policy.
• As of June 2022, e-Wallets and Cryptocurrency verified accounts were the most expensive illegal digital products for sale on the dark web.
• As of 2022, the most challenging data to collect from the dark web in the United States of America was strategic intelligence followed by operational intelligence and tactical intelligence.
• According to Dark Web Statistics, 65% of active criminals use dark web data to create cyber attacks.
• 80% of the email data was leaked to the dark web.
• The dark web demographic Statistics say that male users dominate female users.
• Globally, 78% of the users were using commercial threat intelligence feeds as their main threat intelligence sources.
• As of 2022, around 4000 domains were found impersonating Amazon or Alibaba on the dark net.

Dark Web Statistics By Users' Opinions

• 44% of dark web users say that the platform is important in today’s world, while 32.56% deny it.
• 25% of the users love being untraceable under Dark Net.
• Whereas, 6.82% of users have positively experienced the dark web while 45.45% of users had a negative experience.

Dark Web Statistics By Available Dark Websites

• ProPublica – Platform for Journalism
• KeyBase – File sharing platform for dark web
• Daniel – Platform for dark web links
• DuckDuckGo- Search engine
• Ahmia – commonly used search engine for detailed searches

Dark Web Statistics By Categories

The dark Web has the following categories available for illegal processing

• Weapons (0.3%)
• P*rnography (1%)
• Hacked accounts (3%)
• Drugs (4%)
• Discussion forums (5%)
• Promotions (6%)
• News media (10%)
• Financial fraud (12%)
• Leaked data (28%)
• Illegal file sharing (29%)

Dark Web Statistics By The Average Price Index

By Payment Processing

(Reference: visualcapitalist.com)

By Payment Processing Services

(Reference: privacyaffairs.com)

Following are the average prices for payment processing services on Dark Web in 2022

• Verified Stripe Account with payment gateway ($1,000)
• Hacked Weststein Card Account ($710)
• Hacked TransferGo account ($510)
• 50 Hacked PayPal account logins ($200)
• Hacked PerfectMoney account ($160)
• Hacked UK Neteller ($70)
• Hacked Western Union Account ($45)
• cash login ($14)
• Stolen PayPal account details, no balance ($14)

By Verified Cryptocurrency Accounts

(Reference: privacyaffairs.com)

Following is the average price index as of 2022 for verified cryptocurrency accounts

• Xcoins verified account ($320)
• Bitit.io verified account ($400)
• Bit2me verified account ($120)

By Online Hacked Accounts

The following data shows the comparison between the average price index of online hacked accounts in 2021 and 2022, in the majority of the cases the price is stable, but for some accounts, it is reduced.

(Reference: privacyaffairs.com)

By Forged Documents

Similar to the above chart, the following data compares the price index on Dark Web for forged documents. According to the made observations, the prices for driver’s licenses have increased while other document’s price indexes can be seen as stable even in 2022.

(Reference: privacyaffairs.com)

Dark Web Statistics by Country

(Reference: idagent.com)

Global daily Dark Web average users are as follows

• United States of America – 19.69% (467,9832 average users)
• Germany – 11.95% (283,997 average users)
• India – 4.32% (102,554 average users)
• Indonesia – 3.90% (92,715 average users)
• France – 3.86% (91,667 average users)
• Russia – 3.78% (89,891 average users)
• Finland – 3.58% (85,092 average users)
• Netherlands – 2.92% (69,416 average users)
• United Kingdom – 2.59% (61,458 average users)
• Egypt – 2.13% (50,612 average users)

Dark Web Statistics By Challenges Faced During Monitoring The Dark Web

(Reference: statista.com)

Challenges for monitoring the dark web are as follows

• No System or browser isolation, placing a system at risk of compromise (15.7%)
• Lack of training or experience in dark web investigations (14.2%)
• Lack of support from the organization (13.5%)
• Difficulty finding relevant information on the dark web (12.5%)
• No ability to manage attribution (11.2%)
• No separate network to conduct dark web investigations (10.5%)
• Not enough internal resources to conduct dark web investigations with regularity (10.5)

Conclusion

In conclusion, the landscape of Dark Web statistics paints a complex picture of illicit activities, technological advancements, and evolving market dynamics. With a market value exceeding $1.5 trillion USD, the Dark Web remains a lucrative hub for cybercriminals, offering a vast array of illegal goods and services. From AI-driven phishing chatbots to dark web markets for vaccine certifications, the dark web continues to adapt to global events and exploit emerging trends.

Despite efforts by law enforcement to combat illicit activities, such as the seizure of drugs worth over $53 million USD in Operation SpecTor, the dark web persists as a resilient underworld economy. The dominance of cryptocurrencies, accounting for 98% of transactions, underscores the challenges faced by regulators in curbing illicit financial flows. As market research analysts, it's clear that understanding and monitoring Dark Web statistics are essential for businesses and authorities alike to stay ahead of cyber threats and protect against the ever-evolving risks posed by the digital underworld.

Barry Elad

Barry is a lover of everything technology. Figuring out how the software works and creating content to shed more light on the value it offers users is his favorite pastime. When not evaluating apps or programs, he's busy trying out new healthy recipes, doing yoga, meditating, or taking nature walks with his little one.

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