{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T16:29:02Z","timestamp":1776443342720,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,8]],"date-time":"2023-03-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1678233600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.acm.org\/publications\/policies\/copyright_policy#Background"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Digital Threats"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,31]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n            COVID-19 vaccines have been rolled out in many countries and with them a number of vaccination certificates. For instance, the EU is utilizing a digital certificate in the form of a QR-code that is digitally signed and can be easily validated throughout all EU countries. In this article, we document the current state of the COVID-19 vaccination certificate market in the darkweb with a focus on the EU\n            <jats:bold>Digital Green Certificate (DGC)<\/jats:bold>\n            . We investigate 17 marketplaces and 10 vendor shops that include vaccination certificates in their listings, and discover that a multitude of sellers in both types of platforms are advertising forging capabilities. According to their claims, it is possible to buy fake vaccination certificates issued in many countries worldwide. We demonstrate some examples of such sellers, including how they advertise their services, and we develop a taxonomy of EU COVID-19 certificate forging capabilities, describing the potential methods that the vendors are utilizing to generate certificates. We highlight two particular cases of vendor shops, with one of them showing an elevated degree of professionalism, showcasing forged valid certificates, the validity of which we verify using two different national mobile COVID-19 applications.\n          <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3530877","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,22]],"date-time":"2022-04-22T15:27:17Z","timestamp":1650641237000},"page":"1-17","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["COVID-19 Vaccination Certificates in the Darkweb"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"4","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5842-1236","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dimitrios","family":"Georgoulias","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1903-2921","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jens Myrup","family":"Pedersen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2649-215X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Morten","family":"Falch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5068-9158","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Emmanouil","family":"Vasilomanolakis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_2","unstructured":"Harini Barath Bobbie Johnson and Adriana Fraser. 2021. What\u2019s happening with Covid vaccine apps in the US. https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/2021\/08\/31\/1033993\/vaccine-credential-initiative-us-state-guide\/."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alberto Bracci Matthieu Nadini Maxwell Aliapoulios Ian Gray Damon McCoy Alexander Teytelboym Angela Gallo and Andrea Baronchelli. 2021. Dark web marketplaces and COVID-19: The vaccines.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.3783216"},{"issue":"1","key":"e_1_3_3_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6","DOI":"10.1140\/epjds\/s13688-021-00259-w","article-title":"Dark web marketplaces and COVID-19: Before the vaccine","volume":"10","author":"Bracci Alberto","year":"2021","unstructured":"Alberto Bracci, Matthieu Nadini, Maxwell Aliapoulios, Damon McCoy, Ian Gray, Alexander Teytelboym, Angela Gallo, and Andrea Baronchelli. 2021. Dark web marketplaces and COVID-19: Before the vaccine. EPJ Data Science 10, 1 (2021), 6.","journal-title":"EPJ Data Science"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alberto Bracci Matthieu Nadini Maxwell Aliapoulios Damon McCoy Ian Gray Alexander Teytelboym Angela Gallo and Andrea Baronchelli. 2021. Dark Web Marketplaces and COVID-19: After the vaccines.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.3783216"},{"issue":"622","key":"e_1_3_3_6_2","first-page":"1","article-title":"Illicit firearms and other weapons on darknet markets","author":"Broadhurst Roderic","year":"2021","unstructured":"Roderic Broadhurst, Jack Foye, Chuxuan Jiang, and Matthew Ball. 2021. Illicit firearms and other weapons on darknet markets. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice [electronic resource]622 (2021), 1\u201320.","journal-title":"Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice [electronic resource]"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_7_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2488388.2488408"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_8_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/01639625.2019.1596465"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_9_2","unstructured":"Angeliki Koutantou and Deborah Kyvrikosaios. 2022. Greece imposes rolling fines to push COVID-19 vaccinations in older people. https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/greece-imposes-rolling-fines-push-covid-19-vaccinations-older-people-2022-01-19\/."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_10_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s12117-016-9281-4"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_11_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"L. Peter Deutsch and Jean-Loup Gailly. 1996. ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification version 3.3. https:\/\/datatracker.ietf.org\/doc\/html\/rfc1950.","DOI":"10.17487\/rfc1950"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_12_2","volume-title":"Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime)","author":"Georgoulias Dimitrios","year":"2021","unstructured":"Dimitrios Georgoulias, Jens Myrup Pedersen, Morten Falch, and Emmanouil Vasilomanolakis. 2021. A qualitative mapping of darkweb marketplaces. In Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime). IEEE."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_13_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"815","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-78440-3_36","article-title":"Cybercrime-as-a-Service operations","author":"Hyslip Thomas S.","year":"2020","unstructured":"Thomas S. Hyslip. 2020. Cybercrime-as-a-Service operations. The Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and Cyberdeviance (2020), 815\u2013846.","journal-title":"The Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and Cyberdeviance"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_14_2","unstructured":"August Cellars Jim Schaad. 2017. CBOR Object Signing and Encryption (COSE). https:\/\/datatracker.ietf.org\/doc\/html\/rfc8152."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_15_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Michael B. Jones Erik Wahlstr\u00f6m Samuel Erdtman and Hannes Tschofenig. 2018. CBOR Web Token (CWT). https:\/\/tools.ietf.org\/id\/draft-ietf-ace-cbor-web-token-15.html.","DOI":"10.17487\/RFC8392"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_16_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2021.3117781"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_17_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-55343-2_4","volume-title":"Dark Web Investigation","author":"Kermitsis Emmanouil","year":"2021","unstructured":"Emmanouil Kermitsis, Dimitrios Kavallieros, Dimitrios Myttas, Euthimios Lissaris, and Georgios Giataganas. 2021. Dark web markets. In Dark Web Investigation. Springer, 85\u2013118."},{"issue":"3","key":"e_1_3_3_18_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"559","DOI":"10.1093\/bjc\/azz075","article-title":"Selling drugs on darkweb cryptomarkets: Differentiated pathways, risks and rewards","volume":"60","author":"Martin James","year":"2020","unstructured":"James Martin, Rasmus Munksgaard, Ross Coomber, Jakob Demant, and Monica J. Barratt. 2020. Selling drugs on darkweb cryptomarkets: Differentiated pathways, risks and rewards. The British Journal of Criminology 60, 3 (2020), 559\u2013578.","journal-title":"The British Journal of Criminology"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_19_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0002764217734269"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_20_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ISI.2016.7745435"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_21_2","unstructured":"Andrey Ostroukh and Gabrielle T\u00e9trault-Farber. 2021. Russian regions introduce QR codes for entry to public venues as COVID-19 cases hit record. https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/russian-regions-introduce-qr-codes-entry-public-venues-covid-19-cases-hit-record-2021-10-18\/."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_22_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Giacomo Persi Paoli Judith Aldridge Ryan Nathan and Richard Warnes. 2017. Behind the curtain: The illicit trade of firearms explosives and ammunition on the dark web. (2017).","DOI":"10.7249\/RR2091"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_23_2","unstructured":"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2021. COVID-19 Vaccines That Require 2 Shots. https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/vaccines\/second-shot.html."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_24_2","unstructured":"European Commission. 2021. Technical Specifications for EU Digital COVID Certificates JSON Schema Specification. https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/health\/sites\/default\/files\/ehealth\/docs\/covid-certificate_json_specification_en.pdf."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_25_2","unstructured":"European Commission. 2021. EU Digital COVID Certificate. https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/live-work-travel-eu\/coronavirus-response\/safe-covid-19-vaccines-europeans\/eu-digital-covid-certificate_en."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_26_2","unstructured":"European Commission eHealth Network. 2021. Technical Specifications for Digital Green Certificates Volume 4. https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/health\/sites\/default\/files\/ehealth\/docs\/digital-green-certificates_v4_en.pdf."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_27_2","unstructured":"European Commission eHealth Network. 2021. Technical Specifications for Digital Green Certificates Volume 5. https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/health\/sites\/default\/files\/ehealth\/docs\/digital-green-certificates_v5_en.pdf."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_28_2","unstructured":"European Union. 2021. Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021\/1073. https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/PDF\/?uri=CELEX:32021D1073&from=EN."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_29_2","unstructured":"The Hague Online. 2021. The usefulness of a Covid stamp in your yellow booklet: Read here how it works. https:\/\/www.thehagueonline.com\/news\/2021\/06\/14\/the-usefulness-of-a-covid-stamp-in-your-yellow-booklet-read-here-how-it-works."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_30_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"173","DOI":"10.1016\/j.forsciint.2016.08.032","article-title":"Buying drugs on a darknet market: A better deal? Studying the online illicit drug market through the analysis of digital, physical and chemical data","volume":"267","author":"Rhumorbarbe Damien","year":"2016","unstructured":"Damien Rhumorbarbe, Ludovic Staehli, Julian Bros\u00e9us, Quentin Rossy, and Pierre Esseiva. 2016. Buying drugs on a darknet market: A better deal? Studying the online illicit drug market through the analysis of digital, physical and chemical data. Forensic Science International 267 (2016), 173\u2013182.","journal-title":"Forensic Science International"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_31_2","unstructured":"Lisa Schreiner. 2021. What you need to know about Germany\u2019s \u201cImpfpass\u201d vaccination record. https:\/\/www.iamexpat.de\/expat-info\/german-expat-news\/what-you-need-know-about-germanys-impfpass-vaccination-record."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_32_2","unstructured":"Mathew J. Schwartz. 2012. Feds Bust \u2018Farmer\u2019s Market\u2019 for Online Drugs. https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/attacks-breaches\/feds-bust-farmer-s-market-for-online-drugs."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_33_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3480464"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_34_2","first-page":"33","volume-title":"24th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security\u201915)","author":"Soska Kyle","year":"2015","unstructured":"Kyle Soska and Nicolas Christin. 2015. Measuring the longitudinal evolution of the online anonymous marketplace ecosystem. In 24th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security\u201915). USENIX Association, Washington, D.C., 33\u201348."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_35_2","unstructured":"Lisa Vaas. 2021. UPDATE: EU\u2019s Green Pass Vaccination ID Private Key Leaked or Forged. https:\/\/threatpost.com\/eus-green-pass-vaccination-id-private-key-leaked\/175857\/."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_36_2","first-page":"551","volume-title":"Proceedings of the ACM Internet Measurement Conference","author":"Vu Anh V.","year":"2020","unstructured":"Anh V. Vu, Jack Hughes, Ildiko Pete, Ben Collier, Yi Ting Chua, Ilia Shumailov, and Alice Hutchings. 2020. Turning up the dial: The evolution of a cybercrime market through set-up, stable, and Covid-19 eras. In Proceedings of the ACM Internet Measurement Conference. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 551\u2013566."}],"container-title":["Digital Threats: Research and Practice"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3530877","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/3530877","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,17]],"date-time":"2025-06-17T18:09:26Z","timestamp":1750183766000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3530877"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,8]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,31]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1145\/3530877"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3530877","relation":{},"ISSN":["2692-1626","2576-5337"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2692-1626","type":"print"},{"value":"2576-5337","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,8]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2021-11-25","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2022-04-07","order":1,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2023-03-08","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}