However, there are plenty of cultural divides within these marketplaces too. Anna Chung, Principal Researcher – Palo Alto Networks, said at TNW conference 2021 that individuals from various regions create their own sub-cultures in these marketplaces: She said that one of the main divides amongst these marketplaces is the language they speak. According to her, most marketplaces fall into Russian-speaking, Chinese-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and English-speaking (that could have folks from all over the world). These language-based cultures also define how hackers deal with each other. Chung said that in Russian-speaking marketplaces, you have to take your time to build trust and get vetted through different processes for better access, while conversations in Chinese-speaking marketplaces are short and to the point. She said that while marketplaces are one of the prime places where cybercriminals do their business, a lot of them just operate on apps like Telegram and use social networks to interact with each other.
