More than 10,000 .onion websites from the Dark Web were taken down last week when an anonymous hacker infiltrated the system, stole the database and copied all files from Freedom Hosting II, the largest underground web hosting service on which nearly 20 percent of the entire Dark Web websites are hosted.
In a “ransom note” to the admins, the anonymous hackers appear to have taken issue with the proliferation of child pornography content on Freedom Hosting II’s websites.
The anonymous hackers not only leaked user details including email addresses of website members, but also downloaded and dumped the backups of these websites’ databases, most of which use WordPress as their content management systems.
A hacker who was later interviewed by Motherboard claimed that this was his first hack ever, and that taking down the hosting service was not his original objective. However, after discovering that several of the child pornography websites were using more than their allocated 256MB, he changed his mind and decided to take it down. The hacker has reportedly downloaded 74GB worth of files and a user database dump of 2.3GB.
The leaked details of users could put them in danger of exposure to law enforcement officials. Much of the activity in the Dark Web is illegal, and anonymity is one of the features that emboldens users to engage in such activity.
The Dark Web is going through a difficult time. With so many websites compromised and user details leaked, it’s quite possible that the Tor-based websites won’t see that much traffic from regular users. Most are bound to be worried about their personal details being revealed so publicly, and are very likely to stay away until the dust settles.
We don’t know if law enforcement officials have got their hands on user details, but it’s quite possible.
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