Dark Web and Virtual Assets Taxonomies
This repository contains taxonomies covering common types of entities found in Dark Web and Virtual Assets ecosystems, as well as abusive, possibly criminal behaviors found in real-world investigations.
Taxonomies are defined as YAML files and automatically rendered as a human-readable Website by using the Jekyll static site generator: https://graphsense.github.io/DW-VA-Taxonomy/
How to run the Website locally
Checkout this git repository to your local machine
git clone git@github.com:graphsense/DW-VA-Taxonomy.git
cd DW-VA-Taxonomy
Install ruby as described here
brew install chruby ruby-install
ruby-install ruby
echo "source $(brew --prefix)/opt/chruby/share/chruby/chruby.sh" >> ~/.zshrc
echo "source $(brew --prefix)/opt/chruby/share/chruby/auto.sh" >> ~/.zshrc
echo "chruby ruby-3.1.2" >> ~/.zshrc
ruby -v
Install Jekyll
gem install jekyll bundler
Install local bundles
bundle install
bundle add webrick
Run website in local development mode
bundle exec jekyll serve --watch
Website should run in http://127.0.0.1:4000/DW-VA-Taxonomy/
How to create / modify / delete concept definitions
All taxonomy definition YAML-files reside in the _data directory.
Each taxonomy file defines a so-called (concept) scheme, which can be viewed as an aggregation of one or more SKOS concepts.
scheme:
baseurl: /taxonomies/entities
csvfile: assets/data/entities.csv
type: conceptScheme
version: 0.1
lastmod: 2020-03-31
title: Entity Taxonomy
creator: INTERPOL Darknet and Cryptocurrencies Working Group
description: >
This taxonomy defines entities that represent real-world actors
and service that are part of a larger Darknet- and Cryptoasset Ecosystems.
default_language: en
Further it defines a number of concepts that are linked with each other through broader
and narrower relations and therefore form a hierarchical structure. The seeAlsorelation can be used for referencing external definition sources.
exchange:
id: exchange
type: concept
prefLabel: Exchange
description: >
A cryptocurrency exchange or a digital currency exchange (DCE)
is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or
digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat
money or other digital currencies.
seeAlso: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency_exchange
broader: service
A taxonomy can be modified by changing these definitions.
How to generate downloadable CSV files from defined taxonomies
The taxonomy YAML files in _data feed the Jekyll static Website generator but they are not directly exposed on the Web.
In order to provide machine-processable, downloadable taxonomy representations, they must first be converted into (a) commonly accepted format(s) and provided as downloadable files. This is what the conversion script script/convert.py does.
Before running the script, make sure you have Python 3 up and running and install the dependencies using conda.
conda env create -f environment.yml
Then run the conversion script by passing the taxonomy YAML files and an optional output folder (which is assets/data by default.
./scripts/convert.py -t _data/*.yaml -d assets/data
This converts each YAML file into a corresponding CSV file, which can then be integrated by client applications that make use of that taxonomy.
id,uri,label,description
exchange,https://interpol-innovation-centre.github.io/DW-VA-Taxonomy/taxonomies/entities#exchange,Exchange,"A cryptocurrency exchange or a digital currency exchange (DCE) is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. A cryptocurrency exchange can be a market maker that typically takes the bid-ask spreads as a transaction commission for is service or, as a matching platform, simply charges fees."
After conversion, these files must be added and committed in order to show up on the Website.
git add assets/data
git commit -m "updated taxonomy serialization"
How to contribute
If you have write access to this repository, create a branch, change stuff, and push the branch to GitHub.
git branch my_concept_proposal
git checkout my_concept_proposal
... change files ..
git add [... changed files ...]
git commit -m "some meaningful message"
git push -u origin my_concept_proposal
Please note that the master branch is protected. It feeds the static Website generator and should therefore not be modified without testing things first.
If you are an external contributor without direct write access to this repository, then you can basically follow the same procedure, with the main difference being that you must fork this repository before. Please check to the forking documentation on Github.
Should you wish to contribute to this project, please review our Contributor's page.
FAQ
Why are taxonomies represented in YAML and not in a widely accept SKOS serialization format?
Well, mostly for technical and usability reasons. Jekyll can read and parse YAML files and also people with minimal dev skills can most likely create and/or modify a YAML file. RDF and other formats certainly have a higher entry barrier. However, our taxonomies follow the SKOS standard and can therefore be easily converted. If required, we can do this in future releases.