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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

It was really interesting exploring DarkForums, seeing all the different types of data available. I think I'm going to explore the darkweb more in future - Excited to see what I find next on my investigations!

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

It offers anonymous, zero tracking participation, encrypted private messaging, blockchain based reputation, open source code, and a governance model that distributes moderation power to elected community councils.
#Darkweb #Hacking #Dataleak #CyberSecurity

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

DarkForums differentiates itself from similar sites by putting privacy, decentralization, and community sovereignty at the core of its design.
#Darkweb #Hacking #Dataleak #CyberSecurity

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

It’s not all databases available on DarkForums, people also advertise hacking capabilities such as software exploitation and malware.
#CyberSecurity #Hacking #Vulnerabilities

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

Another user posted Airport Surveillance data form Shanghai Suishenma Airport, with over 5 million rows of data, with things like ‘’isforeigner’’, ‘’companyname’’ and ‘’scanmethod’’. This dataset was offered for free.
#China #ChinaLeak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

There seems to be quite a lot of stuff relating to China, another interesting thing I found was sensitive data from more than 20 Chinese property management companies containing information such as owners, employee ID photos and certificates. #China #ChinaLeak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

One of the more interesting posts I came across was the Chinese National Health Commission database leak, with patient’s names, phone numbers and passport numbers visible in the document. This dataset is being released for free. A shocking amount of data!
#Leak #China #ChinaLeak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

There is also lots of government records and data posted to DarkForums, from countries all over the world. From North America, to Europe and to Asia there seems to be something from every country here.
#Hacking #OSINT #Leak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

There are some really interesting databases posted on here, the most popular one is a Twitter leak from 2023 with over 200 million lines of data. So many companies have leaked data posted to DarkForums.
#Hacking #OSINT #Leak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

The database page is the most active, with over 86,000 posts. Users post the details of their databases here where other members of the forum can discuss them and access them through links to file hosting sites.
#Hacking #OSINT #Leak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

I managed to make my way onto the official Telegram channel after seeing someone had posted an invite in another group I’d managed to get into. After that, I clicked the link to the main site and started investigating.
#Hacking #OSINT #Leak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

DarkForums is a website where people post leaked databases covering all kinds of things from personal data to government documents. Most of these are for sale, usually in crypto. Sometimes people just put it up for free.
#Hacking #OSINT #Leak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

It’s cool what turns up when you start looking, not knowing where you will end up next. I kept seeing people talk about DarkForums. I’d already heard of DarkForums, and I have visited the website a few times before.
#Hacking #OSINT #Leak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 7d

I’ve been doing some more digging into Telegram groups recently, seeing what sort of interesting chats I could make my way into. It’s a great resource for seeing what people might be interested in keeping away from prying eyes.
#Hacking #OSINT #Leak

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

I found it really interesting going through the process of finding out about a marketplace, then trying to get access to it, and then browsing through the products. I’m excited to continue this journey and see what I can find out next! #China #OSINT

Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

The marketplace takes payments in crypto, allowing users to maintain anonymity whilst using an escrow payment method to ensure that buyers get the products they have paid for.

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

Another interesting thing on Chang’An is a seller offering hacking services such as DDOS attacks

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

The variety of ID cards and passports available for purchase is extensive, a buyer could choose from countries all over the world. Options include Germany, the US, Indonesia and especially mainland China.

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

There are some unusual and interesting products on the site though, like tools that allow Chinese citizens to access their domestic internet anonymously to avoid detection by the state.

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

After that, I registered and began my investigation.
After browsing through Chang’An, I found that most of the products being sold were bulk data sets that could be anything from real estate data for Canada, to millions of personal information for Chinese citizens that had been put up for sale.

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

BUT a new site is up and running using the same name.
After navigating my way into the official Chang’An Telegram channel, which is used for market updates and as a hub for users to communicate, I found the onion address that would let me get onto Chang’An.

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

Competing with other infamous sites such as Silk Road 2.0 and AlphaBay, it quickly established itself as a serious player. It was shut down in 2019 following an multi-national law enforcement effort called Operation SpecTor, which targeted key administrators and infrastructure.

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

Originally established in 2014, Chang’An offered products including drugs, firearms, stolen data and digital fraud tools.

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

Chang’An is an emerging Chinese language darknet marketplace that offers a huge range of products from enormous data sets from all around the world to black market phone cards and passports.

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Chloe Tan OSINT @chloetanosint.bsky.social · 13d

I was reading an article by SOCRadar titled China – Russia Cyber Crime Report, which listed the 5 darknet marketplaces in China to pay attention to. I’d seen the name in a few other forums and decided I wanted to check it out for myself.

socradar.io

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