Netcraft Workshop: Dark Markets

Date: 2026-10-07

Difficulty: Beginner

Delivered By: Netcraft

Overview

We're excited to announce an upcoming SUCSS workshop delivered by cybercrime disruption specialists Netcraft! This session will take place in B60 West (Gower Labs) and is beginner friendly - come along and try something new even if you haven't taken part in anything similar before.

This is a fantastic opportunity to hear from industry experts, get hands-on experience attacking criminal website in a simulated environment and hear about Netcraft's exciting internship & graduate opportunities... and there's free pizza. Please make sure you sign up here so that we order enough food for everyone and know who is coming.

Prerequisites

Please sign up at this link to register your attendance: Sign up form

Please bring your laptop with you to the workshop and install the following software in advance:

• PuTTY (or a similar SSH client): https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
• Tor Browser: https://download.torproject.org/

About the Workshop

Dark Markets: De-anonymising Tor Hidden Services for Fun & Profit

Netcraft is running a team-based workshop where you can learn how to attack Dark Markets to discover the identity of their owners, and simultaneously preserve your anonymity whilst running your own Dark Market.

In February 2026, the operator of the Incognito dark market, Rui-Siang Lin, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after running the market for 4 years. Lin was ordered to forfeit $100 million he earned in commission, suggesting that up to $2 billion of goods, primarily illegal drugs, were sold through the market during its lifetime.

Lin's anonymity would have been under constant attack: from thieves wishing to steal his Bitcoin, from many countries' law enforcement operatives wishing to lock him up and throw away the key, and from gangsters wishing to find him and force him to give up his Bitcoin. One small mistake could lead to the loss of his newfound wealth, permanent incarceration, or a tortuous, grisly death. Despite this extreme risk/reward ratio, many others are also brave enough to operate similar dark markets that are still live.

Your challenge, after a short tutorial outlining and illustrating the concepts, is to spend an hour bullet-proofing your dark market and then defend it for just 20 minutes against your peers, whilst discovering the identity of as many of their Hidden Services as you can. Netcraft staff will be available to help. Contract assassinations may lead to disqualification.

Useful resources

Netcraft is the leading cybercrime disruption company, with offices in London, Bath, and Manchester. They offer summer internships (for both first and second years), industrial placements, and graduate opportunities. More information about Netcraft can be found at: https://www.netcraft.com/company/student-careers/.