Dark Web Chronicles, Volume 1: Harm Reduction

Alpha Team Research: Dark Web Chronicles, Volume 1: Harm Reduction

In this advisory series, the Alpha Team will explore various parts of "the dark web" that are rarely discussed or known in the security research community. The goal is to showcase peculiarities or stories of the dark web, demystifying the medium as well as giving valuable insight to our customers. In this post, the team explores the concept of "Harm Reduction" on the dark web. On most marketplaces, especially with drugs, you'll see the phrase "harm reduction" be used by the market, vendors or the buyers themselves. Consequently, there are dark web and clear web markets dedicated to providing harm reduction for drugs, and some of them serve as an intermediary and validator for vendors to make sure that buyers aren't harming themselves from a bad batch of drugs.

Details

Harm reduction is a necessary part of an underground market. Much like Amazon reviews for a product, each dark web forum that is a well-known avenue for vendors to sell and buyers to purchase drugs operates on reviews. The burden of trust eventually lies with the market admins, but many vendors develop relationships with the market admins to show that they have quality products for their forum-goers. This is for a few reasons. Firstly, if a market admin allows vendors onto the market that are scamming their users and sending empty packages, or fake drugs, then this harms the reputation for the forum, thus making it lose viewership. A market will be successful if their vendors are successful, because the market takes a cut for each purchase. Secondly, market admins tend to act as arbiters and escrow services to prevent scammers. This level of insurance helps buyers feel safe buying drugs, as they are protected by the market admins. Lastly, markets will be shunned by their community if they allow a vendor to sell drugs that are harmful due to their composition - no one will buy if they cannot trust the market admin to vouch for the vendor's supply to be safe.

There are many websites dedicated to harm reduction for the public to consume. It is important to note that harm reduction is not just a "cybercriminal" term - for example, there's a "Harm Reduction Coalition" that provides resources to the general public to make sure they are using drugs in a safe manner. This is an important concept in the health of your population, but many purchasers of these products may not have access to a nationally syndicated organization, so the "dark web" may be the only place they can find information. For example, on Dreaddit, a reddit-style forum used as a dark web community site, has a whole page dedicated to harm reduction

Note there that the Dreaddit admin also compares and contrasts network security with harm reduction. There are a multitude of sub-forums dedicated to harm reduction on Dreaddit, and many cybercriminal forums have sections dedicated to operational security and harm reduction as it relates to staying anonymous.

One of the linked services, DNStars, has a community dedicated to testing of products and validation of vendors. Users discuss prices, vendor quality and trustworthiness of vendors frequently.

Their results page is even public. This shows the vendor, the alleged substance, its result from Energy Control and the form factor (pills, powder) of the drug. They also have blog posts updating members if any harm has come to forum dwellers:

" Community member blacked out, hit his head hard and is in A+E having ingested what is presumably more of the fake xanax going around. If there’s orange flecks in it, or it doesn’t taste bitter then it’s not xanax it’s going to be something else. Do yourself a favour and flush them down the toilet "

In conclusion, when working with any type of secondary market, illicit or not, trust is an inherit key to success for that market. If the market falls over, it is most likely due to a breach of trust between the admins, the admins and the vendors or the admins and it's members. Whether you agree or not with the premise of consuming illegal drugs, its interesting to study how these markets self-regulate to make sure members get the best product possible.