Pandemic profiting: Vaccines and PPE on the dark web

A screenshot of the dark web - Vendors on the dark web are selling Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and drugs marketed as coronavirus vaccines or cures at high cost, according to a new study from The Australian National University (ANU). Commissioned by the Australian Institute of Criminology, Professor Rod Broadhurst, Matt Ball and Jessie Jiang from the ANU Cybercrime Observatory analysed 20 darknet markets in April to identify the scale of online underground sales of COVID-19 related products including PPE, vaccines, ventilators, anti-viral medicines and test kits.   "For some people out there this pandemic is a criminal opportunity where they can cash in on fear and shortages. We think we will see more of that and we need some basic monitoring to start shutting it down," said Professor Broadhurst.   "We found unsafe vaccines, repurposed antivirals - which are in very short supply - and quite a lot of bulk PPE on the dark web.  "The biosecurity hazardous products are the most dangerous because some are marketed as if they have been leaked from real trials. But, they could be fake and we don't know what they are made from."   The study found 12 markets posting COVID-19 products with three markets accounting for 85 per cent of all 645 listings. Of all the listings, almost half (44.6 per cent) were PPE items such as surgical masks - often in bulk quantities - and a third were anti-viral or repurposed medicines. Drugs promoted as 'vaccines' accounted for nearly 10 per cent of the listings and were among the most expensive - along with full PPE gear and thermo-scanners.