A state and local intelligence fusion center has issued an intelligence bulletin regarding the Darkleaks online black market.
Darkleaks was designed as a decentralized black-market where individuals can sell sensitive or stolen information for the electronic currency Bitcoin. The software was created with the intent of being decentralized to allow no identify, no central operator, and no interaction between buyers and sellers.
Specific examples of content being offered include:
- Hollywood movies
- Trade secrets
- Government secrets
- Proprietary Source Code
- Industrial designs – medical and defense
- Zero day exploits
- Stolen databases
- Military intelligence
According to the bulletin, the only way to access Darkleaks is from the popular code sharing website GibHub, where the source code for the program can be found. Documents posted are broken up into segments which are hashed and a bitcoin address is generated using the hash as the secret key. The encrypted segments are released for public download with the list of Bitcoin addresses.
Darkleaks also provides an authenticity mechanism allows the community to verify the accuracy of a document before purchasing the full contents. Those interested in purchasing the documents send Bitcoin bids, which once claimed by the seller, results in the automatic release of the content.
The bulletin notes that Darkleaks “allows for individuals the opportunity to leak sensitive information for pay and remain completely anonymous. As use of this program increases, it is likely we could see a rise in sensitive information being leaked from unidentifiable sources.
