Efficient international cooperation, combined with financial investigations and techniques such as undercover operations, can yield success against crime in the Dark Web.

Nevertheless, the hidden nature of the Dark Web – relying on anonymisers and crypto-currencies – raises major problems of attribution, and often law enforcement efforts – with powers confined to national boundaries – are frustrated when investigating borderless crime.

Additional internationally agreed upon solutions meeting rule of law requirements are needed, such as those currently envisaged under a future Protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime.

This was one of the outcomes of a panel on the Dark Web at CYBERSEC 2017 on 9 and 10 October 2017 in Krakow, Poland.