ZOOM-IN INTO 2020 As part of our research, we wanted to take a closer look into 2020 to understand whether the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the number of credit cards offered for sale on Dark Web markets. Although the first cases of COVID-19 were discovered in China in 2019, the first US case was in January 2020 and by March 2020 a national emergency was declared by US President Donald Trump. 2 As we look into each month of 2020, we notice the year can be divided into two, the first seven months of the year and the last five months. The first seven months demonstrated high numbers compared to the same period in previous years. For example, in March, when the Coronavirus was first appearing worldwide, the number of credit cards sold online increased by 51% compared to the month of March in the previous year. 2 https://www.ajmc.com/view/a-timeline-of-covid19-developments-in-2020 After July 2020, there is a steep decline of 61% between the numbers observed in July 2020 and August 2020. Overall, the numbers observed during the last five months of 2020, are unusually low comparing to the same months in 2018 and 2019. Although the first months of 2020 demonstrated a high number of credit cards offered for sale, the second part of the year demonstrated low numbers even compared to 2018, this caused a decline of only 24.5% between 2019 to 2020. This decline is relatively low comparing to the decline of almost 50% from 2020 to 2021 when observing the data collected up until September 2021. When we look at the first seven months of 2020, compared to the first seven months of 2019, we discover there is a rise of 43% in the number of credit card offered for sale. When comparing the last five months of 2020 to the last five months of 2019, a decline of 57% is presented. January February March April June May July 2020 2019 August September November October December 8 8