Among the millions of people who «surf» daily from the computer or their «smart» device, many perhaps have not realized that, besides the «visible» Internet, there is also a parallel online «universe» of services and websites where there is no chance that… they would accidentally stumble upon them. Inaccessible to conventional browsers, this «universe» has been «baptized» Dark Net (Darknet). A name that owes to the fact that it remains hidden from search engines that «scan» the web, as well as from repressive authorities or other governmental services around the world.
The logic of the Darknet is to provide anonymity to those who use it – something that, as is true in the real world, represents an opportunity that criminals would not leave unexploited. Among the illicit activities that have found «shelter» in it, high on the list is the trafficking of all kinds of illegal product or material. Thus, the Dark Web is heavily employed for the buying and selling of child pornography, drugs, weapons, stolen credit cards and forged identities.
In most cases, illegal transactions are carried out through online «black markets», i.e., sites where «sellers» post their ads and receive orders. As with legitimate e‑commerce, the products are shipped by mail to the address chosen by the buyer. The difference is that the trades are mostly done in bitcoin, the virtual currency that is not involved with any central bank, making the transactions harder to trace.
The Darknet is a network of servers that rely on encryption technologies to exchange data. The most widespread technology for t’ this purpose is Tor (The onion router), which was originally developed by the Research Laboratory of the US Navy, for protecting military communications. Thanks to Tor, a site can hide its digital footprints, «camouflaging» the server that hosts it. At the same time, the technology ensures that access to the Dark Web is only available to users who have installed the appropriate software on their machines. Software that also guarantees their anonymity.
Until recently, even if someone had installed the software, they would also need to know the specific address of each website they wanted to visit. However, a few weeks ago, the Darknet acquired its own «search engine», Grams, a search engine that aggregates results from eight online «dark markets» and their listings. Of course, the creator's motive for Grams is profit, as he mentioned in the American magazine Wired, he will soon start charging those who want their listings to appear higher in the results.
Moreover, profit is also a primary reason why most of these websites appeared after last October and despite the arrest at that time by the FBI of the man who is said to be the «brain» behind Silk Road, -«one of the most advanced online “black markets”» as it has been described. And this because, according to the case files, Silk Road's revenue in less than 3 years of operation reached 80 million dollars, from the commission it charged for each transaction. Indeed, the transactions that took place during the site's operation appear to have exceeded 1.2 billion dollars.
Indeed, according to prosecutorial principles worldwide, the Dark Web makes tackling online crime more difficult, but not impossible. Thus, while the defendant, identified as the administrator of Silk Road, awaits trial, facing a prison sentence of at least 30 years, in February another online «black market», Utopia, with the arrest of five suspects by Dutch and German police.
A fixed tactic is for the authorities not to reveal what kind of electronic «counter‑measures» they employ – in the case of Silk Road, the FBI representative simply referred to «human errors» that led to the administrator's traces. On the other hand, the authorities exploit the fact that crimes in the online world leave traces in the real one as well: for the dismantling of Utopia, according to the Dutch police press release, officers posed as «customers», buying drugs and weapons. «The operation sends a clear message that no one can slip through, because they use Tor», the announcement states emphatically.
The bright side
Darknet may come into the news usually as a result of police operations that target «black markets» like Silk Road, however this does not mean it is merely the online equivalent of the real underworld. «The Dark Web also has an extremely important “bright” side, ensuring freedom of expression for people living under authoritarian regimes and helping shocking documents come to light, without the fear of those who leaked them that they will be prosecuted», notes Brad Chacos from PC World.
Indicatively, on the Darknet copies of GlobalLeaks and Wikileaks have occasionally been hosted, and the magazine New Yorker has created Strongbox, a service on the Dark Web that guarantees anonymity to those who wish to communicate with its editors with greater security than that offered by electronic mail. Also, the organization “Reporters Without Borders» advises its members to use it to get in touch with their sources, in case they want to ensure that the identity of those communicating remains secret.
Meanwhile, in tools and services that rely on Tor, simple users find «refuge» who want to bypass the «filters» of internet censorship in their country and, as is natural, political activists. Thus, according to the website of The Tor Project, the Darknet was flooded with blogs during the «Arab Spring», by people who participated in the uprisings and wanted to send their testimony abroad. Capabilities that, as noted by the editor of PC World, could not become reality if the Darknet did not provide a level of security which unfortunately also makes it attractive to criminals.
Source: kathimerini.gr
