How darknet market users learned to worry more and love PGP: Analysis of security advice on darknet marketplaces

Andrew C. Dwyer, Joseph Hallett, Claudia Peersman, Matthew Edwards, Brittany I. Davidson, Awais Rashid

Abstract: Darknet marketplaces, accessible through, Tor are where users can buy illicit goods, and learn to hide from law enforcement. We surveyed the advice on these markets and found valid security advice mixed up with paranoid threat models and a reliance on privacy tools dismissed as unusable by the mainstream.