Which reliable cybersecurity blogs or threat intelligence firms report on active carding markets?
Executive summary
Reliable coverage of active carding markets appears in specialized threat-intelligence reports and dark‑web research published by niche cybersecurity firms and specialist blogs rather than general industry roundups; notable, source-cited names in the provided reporting include CloudSEK for marketplace surveys and Team Cymru (reported via IT Security News / GBHackers) for technical infrastructure mapping, while broader cyber publications and curated blog lists point readers to researchers who routinely surface carding activity [1] [2] [3].
1. CloudSEK: marketplace-focused dark‑web reporting that names carding sites
CloudSEK’s dark‑web market surveys explicitly review marketplaces historically associated with carding—Brian’s Club is cited as a longstanding carding site tied to DOJ cases—using a framework of impact, scale, law‑enforcement history and ecosystem effects, making the company a direct source for analysts tracking active and legacy carding markets [1].
2. Team Cymru / GBHackers Security: infrastructure and technical indicators
Technical threat‑intelligence work that uncovers hosting patterns and indicators of carding activity is exemplified by Team Cymru’s research, as reported by IT Security News / GBHackers, which identified 28 unique IPs and 85 domains used to host carding markets between July and December 2025—an example of the kind of forensic internet‑level tracing practitioners rely on to flag active carding infrastructure [2].
3. Specialist outlets and curated lists point to recurring investigators
Curated lists and “most popular” compilations—published in outlets such as Government Technology, Security Boulevard and OnlineDegrees’ roundup of top blogs—do not themselves break carding stories but repeatedly surface the independent blogs and researchers (for example, long‑running security commentators and daily IT security digests) that investigators and practitioners follow for dark‑web and carding coverage, indicating where to look for periodic reporting and analyst links [4] [5] [3].
4. Industry reports and aggregated cybercrime blogs as secondary trails
Industry‑scale publications and aggregators—including Cybersecurity Ventures’ ecosystem content and Cybercrime Magazine blogging—function as secondary amplifiers: they aggregate vendor reports, law‑enforcement case summaries, and magazine pieces that can link back to primary technical reporting on marketplaces or prosecutions tied to carding activity, though they are less likely to run original dark‑web infrastructure scans themselves [6].
5. What the sources do not prove and where to be cautious
The provided reporting does not produce a comprehensive directory of every firm that covers active carding markets; it demonstrates two reliable patterns—direct dark‑web marketplace analysis (CloudSEK) and forensic infrastructure research (Team Cymru reported by GBHackers)—and highlights that broader cybersecurity blogs and industry aggregators routinely index or point to such primary work, so readers should prioritize primary TI reports and technical writeups over general predictions lists when seeking up‑to‑date carding market intelligence [1] [2] [4].
6. Practical guidance distilled from the reporting
For an investigator or defender seeking authoritative reporting on active carding markets, follow three tracks evidenced by the sources: vendor dark‑web research reports that name marketplaces and analyze law‑enforcement ties (CloudSEK), technical TI teams that publish infrastructure indicators and domain/IP mappings (Team Cymru via IT Security News / GBHackers), and reputable security blogs and daily digests that curate links to those primary reports—using the latter as a discovery tool while treating the former as the evidentiary backbone [1] [2] [3].