Dark Web

 

The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets, overlay networks which use the public Internet but which require specific software, configurations or authorization to access. The dark web forms a small part of the deep web, the part of the Web not indexed by search engines, although sometimes the term "deep web" is mistakenly used to refer specifically to the dark web.

The darknets which constitute the dark web include small, friend-to-friend peer-to-peer networks, as well as large, popular networks like Freenet, I2P, and Tor, operated by public organizations and individuals. Users of the dark web refer to the regular web as the Clearnet due to its unencrypted nature.The Tor dark web may be referred to as onionland,a reference to the network's top level domain suffix .onion and the traffic anonymization technique of onion routing.

Darknet markets

Commercial darknet markets, which mediate transactions for illegal drugs and other goods, attracted significant media coverage starting with the popularity of Silk Road and Diabolus Marketits subsequent seizure by legal authorities.Other markets sell software exploits[ and weapons.Examination of price differences in Dark web markets versus prices in real life or over the World Wide Web have been attempted as well as studies in the quality of goods received over the Dark web. One such study performed on the quality of illegal drugs found in Evolution, one of the most popular cryptomarkets active from January 2014 to March 2015. An example of analytical findings included that digital information, such as concealment methods and shipping country, seems accurate," but the illicit drugs purity is found to be different from the information indicated on their respective listings."Less is known about consumer motivations for accessing these marketplaces and factors associated with their use.

Hacking groups and services

Many hackers sell their services there individually or as a part of groups. Such groups include xDedic, hackforum, Trojanforge, Mazafaka, dark0de and the TheRealDeal darknet market.Some have been known to track and extort apparent pedophiles.Cyber crimes and hacking services for financial institutions and banks have also been offered over the Dark web. Attempts to monitor this activity has been made through various government and private organizations, and an examination of the tools used can be found in the Procedia Computer Science journal.Use of Internet-scale DNS Distributed Reflection Denial of Service (DRDoS) attacks have also been made through leveraging the Dark Web.

Fraud services

There are numerous carding forums, as well as fraud and counterfeiting services. Many such sites are scams themselves.

Hoaxes and unverified content

There are reports of crowdfunded assassinations and hitmen for hire,however these are believed to be exclusively scams.The creator of Silk Road was arrested by Homeland Security investigations (HSI) for his site and allegedly hiring a hitman to kill six people, although the charges were later dropped.

There is an urban legend that one can find live murder on the dark web. The term "Red Room" has been coined based on the Japanese animation and urban legend of the same name. However the evidence points towards all reported instances being hoaxes.

On June 25, 2015, a creepy indie game Sad Satan was reviewed by Youtubers Obscure Horror Corner which they claimed to have found via the dark web. Various inconsistencies in the channel's reporting cast doubt on the reported version of events.

Phishing and scams

Phishing via cloned websites and other scam sites are numerous, with darknet markets often advertised with fraudulent urls.

Puzzles

Puzzles such as Cicada 3301 and successors will sometimes use hidden services in order to more anonymously provide clues, often increasing speculation as to the identity of their creators.

Illegal and ethically disputed pornography

There is regular law enforcement action against sites distributing child pornography often via compromising the site by distributing malware to the users. Sites use complex systems of guides, forums and community regulation.

Other content includes sexualised torture and killing of animals and revenge porn.

Illegal Animal Trade

Within the markets existing in the Dark web, illegal animal trade has increasingly appeared in Dark web markets after scrutiny and regulation increased in the World Wide Web. However the amount of activity is still negligible compared to the amount on the open web. As stated in an examination of search engine key words relating to wildlife trade, "This negligible level of activity related to the illegal trade of wildlife on the dark web relative to the open and increasing trade on the surface web may indicate a lack of successful enforcement against illegal wildlife trade on the surface web."

Terrorism

There are at least some real and fraudulent websites claiming to be used by ISIL, including a fake one seized in Operation Onymous.In the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks an actual such site was hacked by an Anonymous affiliated hacker group GhostSec and replaced with an advert for Prozac.The Rawti Shax islamist group was found to be operating on the dark web at one time.

Social Media

There exists within the Dark Web emerging social media platforms similar to those on the World Wide Web. Facebook and other traditional social media platforms have begun to make Dark Web versions of their websites to address problems associated with the traditional platforms and to continue their service in all areas of the World Wide Web.