According to a report by The Record, several advertisements for the sale of Genesis have recently appeared on underground forums. The FBI deactivated the website early this year as part of an investigation that saw the arrest of numerous site administrators and users. The platform had previously been a popular location for hacking services and stolen data.
The FBI later conducted hundreds of raids in countries all over the world, where several websites were seized that effectively crippled the platform’s operation. One might assume that there would not be much left to sell given the extent of the operation.
However, according to The Record, on June 28 a user account that appears to be associated with Genesis' operators started posting about the business's sale. The user asserted that the darknet platform of the marketplace was still functional and that the FBI had only taken control of the open web domains of the marketplace. Reportedly, the sale involves illegal business infrastructures, including “a complete database (except for some details of the client base), source codes, scripts, with a certain agreement, as well as server infrastructure.”
Although if you are a potential buyer, there are certain concerns that come with such acquisition. They include:
- Buying these sites is certainly illegal, and may get you in trouble.
- The likelihood that it is some sort of FBI honeypot operation does not seem implausible.
- It is hard to assume that Genesis will make a comeback anytime soon because its reputation among users of the darknet is completely destroyed.
Regardless, the answer to how the dark net is doing lately is quite intriguing. Past few years have apparently been challenging for the virtual underworld, thanks to the active and aggressive operations against it by the Justice Department.
A report from February notes that the Darknet revenue has lately experienced losses. The FBI exposing the Hydra marketplace further dropped the revenue flow exponentially. Prior to its downfall, Hydra was one of the most popular cybercrime hotspots on the web. The state’s operation against it seems to have hugely impacted the dark web economy. The Genesis shutdown is likely to have only contributed further to the disturbance in the web’s murkiest realm.
