➤Summary
A hacker forum is an online platform (mostly traditional websites) where individuals with an interest in hacking and information security gather to share information, exchange ideas, and collaborate on projects. These forums can be used for a variety of purposes, including discussing hacking techniques, sharing exploits and vulnerabilities, and trading stolen data or other illegal goods and services. Some hacker forums are public, while others are invitation-only or require a fee for access. Many hacker forums have a strong sense of community and operate under a set of unwritten rules and ethics, although some are used by malicious actors for illegal activities.
Traditional hacker forums can be a source of a wide range of data from organizations, including:
Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging app that allows users to send messages, photos, videos, and files to other users across the world. Telegram is known for its fast and secure messaging, as well as its ability to handle large groups and high volumes of traffic. Hackers share data leaks on Telegram in different ways. In some channels, hackers post data dumps with short explanations about what people can find in them. In these channels, minimal conversations occur. However, there are also dedicated hacking groups where many members actively discuss various aspects of Internet crime. There are many more ways Telegram is used by hackers:
Discord is a communication platform that allows users to text, voice and video chat with each other. It was initially designed for gaming communities but has since grown to include a wide range of users and communities. There are instances where hackers have used private channels on Discord to exchange and sell data leaks. However, it’s important to note that not all Discord channels or communities are used for illegal activities, and the vast majority of Discord users are using the platform for legitimate purposes. Unlike Telegram, Discord is not yet that popular for hacking activities.
Telegram itsself has over 500 million active users, and many of these users are likely to have created or joined channels. Telegram allows anyone to create a channel and there’s no limitation or verification process to it, so the number of channels on the platform is quite high. Additionally, many of these channels are likely to be inactive or used for legitimate purposes, so it’s difficult to estimate the number of channels that are specifically used for hacking or other illegal activities. Therefore its very hard to keep track of channels and you will always only cover a very small fraction of all relevant channels. The situation is somewhat different for traditional hacker channels. These are far less dynamic and the activities are usually limited to a few very popular forums.In both cases, however, monitoring is possible as long as you focus on selected channels or forums. Kaduu for example offers a Telegram, Discord and Hacker Forum monitoring feature as part of our darknet– and deepweb monitoring service.
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