The dark web is the part of the internet that is impenetrable by the usual browsers, and which can be accessed only with special browsers such as Tor that conceal the identity of the person visiting websites. Here is where drugs and hackers ply their trade.
Networks exist – and are indeed flourishing – on the dark web, including forums, communities and file-sharing facilities that could be very useful to researchers or police.
Myths vs. Reality
Myths are traditional narratives about supernatural agents, events and occurrences. Freed from the conventions of objective truths, myths mean different things to different people, which makes it all the more important to distinguish clearly between the facts and fiction.
It is the name applied to a small part of the internet, hidden away among password-protected websites that have not been indexed by search engines, and not easily reached except with special software such as an anonymous web browser called Tor. To an outside observer, its contents could resemble the top of an iceberg. Only its tip would be visible at the surface.
Contrary to popular belief, the majority of cybercrime doesn’t occur on the dark web at criminal marketplaces and terrorist forums – even though these sites are strongly correlated with perceptions of cybercriminal activity. Rather, the fastest-growing forms of crime on the internet are happening in plain sight across social media platforms, on encrypted chat applications such as WhatsApp, and on seemingly innocuous websites such as Reddit and 8Chan.
The Dark Web
The Dark Web is that anonymising portion of the Internet that is password-protected and not search engine indexed – linked to prostitution and drug-dealing and criminal activity, and websites selling hacking tools, stolen data and even ‘hits’ for sale.
But Dark Web content is not limited to markets – there are also chat forums where, often secretly, users can communicate to discuss a particular topic or work on a project together, unafraid of censorship, or of anyone knowing who they are.
Scientists and journalists must tread a careful line between informing the public about the Dark Web and sensationalising it to glamorise a nefarious criminal milieu or facilitate censorship or state harm against vulnerable populations. Tor and I2P can provide tools to help us stay on that line.
Search Engines
Search engines are algorithms designed to find things online that match the words input by a person (or ‘user’). Without them, you couldn’t research, entertain or basically do anything on the internet.
Search engines derive their revenue by presenting organic search index returns to the user, and through the sale of advertising space to commercial websites that vie for coverage, high within the listings of results. There is therefore a potential for bias in the information returned by search engines, due to many social, economic and political pressures.
The first search engine as such was invented in 1990 by Alan Emtage of McGill University in Montreal. It was called Archie (the name later shortened according to the convention of the Unix world – grep, cat, troff, sed, awk, etc). Other popular search engines are Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo. And more and more people use Ecosia, an eco-friendly search engine, which plants trees using part of its income.
Scams
The dark web has been seen for some time as an incubator of cyber-dangers: it can be used to conduct data and identity theft, to disseminate malware and to coordinate cyberattacks; illegal substances, guns and people are often traded here; child pornography for minors is to be found here.
Limiting these risks means that it’s always best to access the dark web using a VPN. Be sure to periodically scan devices for malware and check bank accounts for signs of breaches. If a compromised account appears, contact your bank and change the password immediately, following restoration instructions they provide. Users are also encouraged to run Peraton’s TORNADO service on a regular basis to scan a snapshot of the dark web for compromised information that may have been posted.
Conclusions
The Dark Web is an unintelligible corner of the world wide web known as a cesspool of criminality and vulnerability to cybercrime, but it can also be the source of many benefits such as privacy and a platform for activists in repressive environments, though its benefits are frequently lost in the swirl of its reputation – such as its anonymity and its provision of a platform for activists combatting oppression through campaigning on its pages.
You need to know something about it before you go there, and you might also need to think about the ethics of your curiosity.
