Dark Web

Only darkness or is there a ray of light?

“Technology is always a two-edged sword. It brings in benefits but as many as disasters.”

The dark web refers to encrypted online content that is not indexed by search engines. The dark web is a component of the deep web that displays that source of content that does not appear through regular Internet browsing activities. Most deep web content consists of private files hosted on Dropbox and its competitors or subscriber-only databases rather than anything illegal. Many dark web sites simply provide standard web services with more secrecy, which benefits political dissidents and people trying to keep medical conditions private.

To understand the dark web, consider internet content existing in three segments: 

The dark web, the clear web (or surface web), and the deep web.

The dark web’s content on the internet isn’t viable through common browsers or standard browsing technology. Content on the dark web is designed to be hidden from search engines and casual users — we can’t simply stumble across dark web sites by accident.
The dark web, compared to the billions of sites available on the clear and deep web, comprises just a few thousands of sites.

The clear web is the traditional, easily navigated internet content accessible through all standard browsers and technology. When someone visits any basic website e.g thetimeofindia.com, they will find the original content accessible to all without something to hide. Search engines, like Google, crawl (or index) the clear web to smooth users’ navigation.

The deep web consists of content search engines can’t index — this includes material that’s accessible only behind login pages or on websites that have restricted or blocked search engines from indexing their contents. When we log into a bank or social media accounts, for example, the content available to us as registered users is the deep web. Pages or sites that request not to be indexed or are designed so a crawler can’t navigate their contents (e.g., a page that might require extended user interaction to access materials) are also part of the deep web.

More on Dark Web

Researchers Daniel Moore and Thomas Rid of King's College in London distributed the contents of 2,723 live dark web sites over five weeks in 2015 and found that 57% host illicit material.
A 2019 study, Into the Web of Profit, conducted by Dr. Michael McGuires at the University of Surrey, shows that things have become worse. The number of dark web listings that could harm an enterprise has risen by 20% since 2016. Of all listings (excluding those selling drugs), 60% could potentially harm enterprises.

As with the early Internet, the dark web has also gained a reputation as a haven for illegal activities. The dark web, like the web before it, is frequently blamed for horrible crimes, such as child abuse and murder for hire. Even Though these crimes existed long before the invention of the internet, its invention helped to promote tolerance in the late 20th century, when many laws discriminated against alternative lifestyles. Similarly, drugs once sold illegally on the dark web are increasingly being decriminalized. The dark web makes it harder to enforce both just and unjust laws.

NOTE: The dark web and the deep web are also often erroneously used interchangeably. The deep web includes all the pages that don’t pop up when you run a web search. The dark web is just one part of the deep web. The deep web also contains everything requiring a login, such as online banking, pay sites, and file hosting services.

The Darker side

Within the criminal communities on the dark web, fraudsters have built entire e-commerce platforms designed to trade in illicit goods and services. The infamous Silk Road marketplace, launched in 2011, was the first market to combine the anonymizing dark web technology with the power of anonymous cryptocurrency transactions. Silk Road became a model for all future dark web marketplaces. At any given time, a handful of large-scale criminal marketplaces operate on the dark web, each with thousands to tens of thousands of listings for illicit goods and services. These marketplaces use familiar site structures, akin to the user experience of browsing on Amazon or eBay. On these markets, users can browse listings by category, navigate vendor advertisements, filter their search options by price, location or vendor reviews, and message the vendors or market administrators with questions.

Established platforms allow vendors — particularly fraud vendors dealing in digital goods — to automate and scale their operations. Many fraud vendors use an auto-delivery mechanism for their listings, which ensures buyers receive the volume of data purchased immediately after checkout. In this way, vendors can continue to turn profits and move inventory around the clock.

Is the Dark Web only a web of frauds?

The dark web is home to hundreds of different communities and hosts a wide variety of site types — medical forums, political parties, graphic design firms, anime fan gatherings, and more. It contains mirrors of clear websites. It’s a place of anonymity, but that doesn’t immediately equate to criminality. The dark web is a privacy tool, designed with user security and anonymity in mind. Security and privacy are neutral — they’re as beneficial to legal communities looking for protection as they are to criminal communities looking for a way to hide. Research conducted by Terbium Labs in 2017 showed that 47.7% of site content across Tor hidden services is legal — other numbers in the industry closely match this stat.

Dark Web Browser

Accessing the dark web requires the use of an anonymizing browser called Tor. The Tor browser routes your web page requests through a series of proxy servers operated by thousands of volunteers around the globe, rendering your IP address unidentifiable and untraceable. Tor works like magic, but the result is an experience that’s like the dark web itself: unpredictable, unreliable, and maddeningly slow.

Law enforcement officials are getting better at finding and prosecuting owners of sites that sell illicit goods and services. In the summer of 2017, a team of cybercops from three countries successfully shut down AlphaBay, the dark web’s largest source of contraband, sending shudders throughout the network. But many merchants simply migrated elsewhere.

“The anonymous nature of the Tor network also makes it especially vulnerable to DDoS”, said Patrick Tiquet, Director of Security & Architecture at Keeper Security, and the company’s resident expert on the topic. “Sites are constantly changing addresses to avoid DDoS, which makes for a very dynamic environment,” he said. As a result, “The quality of search varies widely, and a lot of material is outdated.”

Conclusion

There’s no reason to be afraid of the dark web. On the contrary, the dark web is an essential privacy tool. As governments work to weaken encryption with backdoors and corporations gain greater access to everything we do, privacy and security technologies like the dark web must be vigorously defended. And that starts with understanding them beyond sensational headlines.