The coronavirus pandemic, which has swept the globe, has brought out the best in most, but the crisis has also given criminals and other threat actors on the Dark Web the opportunity to profit from the climate of fear caused by the virus.

While technology allows individuals to stay connected during global pandemics such as the coronavirus, threat actors, and cybercrime on all levels of the internet, including the darknet have also benefited tremendously from modern technology using its accessibility to commit cybercrime.

Both cyber criminals and state-sponsored actors aiming to profit from the confusion and widespread fear of the coronavirus crisis have launched countless schemes which target everyone from the vulnerable consumer to unprepared government facilities.

In the few months since the start of the coronavirus crisis, thousands of scams and threats related to the global pandemic have emerged. Both government and cybersecurity officials have cautioned that social isolation and fear can cause clients to open themselves up to compromising positions by clicking malicious links or URLs.

Scams originating on the Dark Web include the selling of counterfeit masks, latex gloves, fake home testing kits for the virus, bogus preventative drugs, fake vaccines and are being sold by threat actors through text messages, emails, on social media and more.

Threat actors have also begun to create new types of malware and ransomware, have been intercepting traffic from videoconferencing and have registered numerous domain names to run phishing campaigns that target people’s emails, passwords and personal information.

With millions of people working from home, there are more vulnerable points for cyber attacks as employees are not surrounded by their usual IT infrastructure and are highly susceptible to malicious cybercrime.

Using Cobwebs’ automated tools such as Webloc, the digital footprints of the threat actors behind the phishing attacks targeting individuals can be identified, traced, mapped and monitored in a non-intrusive way, allowing investigators to find the source.

Webloc meticulously races through and scans endless layers of the internet and Dark Web, analyzing all available information and providing effective and real-time intelligence to authorities.

The ability of Cobwebs’ AI-driven search engines, capable of automatically shifting through an infinite amount of critical data across all layers of the internet including open source and the dark web, optimizes investigations and provides authorities with precise intelligence much faster than ever before.

Machine-learning and AI capabilities which scour the darknet can also unveil hidden criminal connections, potentially preventing additional crime and the AI-powered search engine allows authorities to extract critical insights from across the internet and real-time alerts provide the ability to respond in optimal time.

With Cobwebs’ solutions like social network analysis and location based data, clients are able to instantly extract data to then analyze and verify the identity and location of the threat actors to prevent them from further criminal acts.

With web intelligence capabilities providing the algorithms to identify and mitigate threats, authorities are able to remain one step ahead of cybercriminals who aim to make big profits from the deadly coronavirus pandemic.