Elections, topic of interest on the dark web

About 76 countries, including Mexico and the United States, will have electoral processes this year and this has caught the attention of users of the dark web, better known as dark web, among whom are everything from cybercriminals to people who promote democracy .

According to a NordVPN study, the number of new posts on dark web forums about elections rose 394% in 2023 compared to 2022, while in the first two months of 2024, this number continues to rise.

Laura Tyrylyte, head of Public Relations at Nord Security, added that publications with the keyword “restriction” in content about elections also increased in the last year, almost 380 percent.

This is because, although the dark web is known because cybercriminals use it to sell information, there are also people who use it to confront injustices.

In the case of elections, the truth is that not all processes will be free, fair and equal, since some governments could take advantage of their authority to manipulate the electorate and impose various restrictions or even complete internet closures during the most sensitive periods.

Hence, people who experience these cases use everything from social networks to the dark web to promote marches and mobilizations, as well as other measures.

“Every time a government announces increased surveillance, internet restrictions, or other restrictions, people turn to privacy tools like virtual private networks (VPNs),” Tyrylyte added.

An example this year is that when Pakistan imposed internet restrictions, including shutting down social network X, demand for VPNs quadrupled in a week.

Added to that, according to the #KeepItOn coalition, 24 countries holding elections this year have imposed internet shutdowns in the past. This measure deliberately disrupts communications and directly affects transparency and accountability.

For Hiram Alejandro Camarillo, Information Director at Seekurity, this increase in conversations related to elections on the dark web is due to the fact that they are an important topic for people and not so much because cybercriminals are indicating how they will attack.

They call it the dark web because they talk about many things that may be illegal and, due to the structure it has, it provides a capacity of invisibility to the people who are talking about it, but topics are discussed like on the normal internet,” he explained. .

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While it is true that cybercriminals can take advantage of the election period to carry out malicious campaigns, Camarillo considered that the increase in conversations about this topic on the dark web will shed little light on their attack methods.

This is because many cybercriminals are migrating to forums or channels in applications, such as Telegram, that allow them to have more control over the people with whom they share information. For example, forums have been found where you must pay to enter or where you can only enter by invitation.

Ramón Salas, a junior account executive at BeyondTrust, agreed that conversations on the dark web are unlikely to reveal specific details about who or how they plan to carry them out.

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