Bavarian State Ministry of Justice and Dutch TNO partner on innovative technology to combat cybercrime

Dark Web Monitor pilot

Dark Web Monitor (DWM) is an OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) database that provides insights into criminal and fraudulent activities happening by exploiting dark web and virtual assets. The encrypted tor network has become a safe-haven for criminals who exploit the total anonymity. Their criminal activities range from child abuse and drugs trafficking to large scale financial crimes, affecting both cyberspace and the physical world.
Consequently, with these opportunist actions becoming more sophisticated, there is a prevalent need to improve Dark Web monitoring capabilities to gain an edge over these criminals. DWM supports law enforcement agencies where questionable activities are taking place allowing them to zero in on this information using advanced analytics to trace and apprehend the criminals for prosecution.

Innovation to combat new threats

Mr Krishna Taneja, TNO’s director National Security stated : “Technology is rapidly changing our world, and criminals quickly recognise new opportunities like the Dark Web. This creates new threats. Innovations are required to counter these threats. DWM is a good example of such an innovation that finds its TNO origin in the innovation programme of the Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands. This technology is driven by a broad range of requirements from our national and international stakeholders, and provides new operational perspectives driven by data analytics and artificial intelligence. This MoU accelerates the translation of Dark Web Monitor into an operational capability for our Bavarian partners, and is an important step towards an international technology partnership.”

Mr Eisenreich, Bavarian State Minister of Justice adds: “A digitally net-worked world harbors fantastic opportunities, but is vulnerable at the same time: Cybercriminals abuse the new possibilities to commit criminal offences. This is why the State of Bavaria is taking a determined approach in combatting cybercrime. Thanks to the Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of Cybercrime (ZCB) the Free State's justice system is well prepared, with 15 prosecutor and 3 IT specialists forming one of Germany's largest and most experienced specialized prosecutors' offices. The Dark Web Monitor's innovative technology enables us to take new technological approaches to shed more light on the dark web and to find perpetrators.“