Rapidly emerging is an exciting new field known as “cyber threat intelligence.” The key idea with this paradigm is that defenders of computer networks gain a better understanding of their adversaries by analyzing what assets they have available for an attack. In this book, we examine a new type of cyber threat intelligence that takes one into the heart of the malicious hacking underworld— the darkweb. These highly secure sites have allowed for an anonymous community of malicious hackers to exchange ideas, techniques, and buy/sell malware and exploits. This book examines how we explored this problem through a combination of human and automated techniques to grasp a better understanding of this community. We describe both methodology and some of the resulting insights. This book serves as a first step toward a better understanding of malicious hacking communities on the darkweb.

The authors would like to acknowledge the generous support from the Arizona State University Global Security Initiative (GSI), the Office of Naval Research Neptune program, the Arizona State University Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), and CNPq-Brazil, which have enabled our research in the area of cyber threat intelligence mined from the darkweb. Specific individuals, we would like to thank include Jamie Winterton, Nadya Bliss, H. Russel Bernard, William Brandt, Andrew Gunn, Robert Morgus, Frank Grimmelmann, Amanda Thart, andVineet Mishra.We alsowould like to extend a special thanks to Lauren Cowels, our editor at Cambridge University Press, whose assistance throughout the creation of this book was much appreciated.