Dark web revealed – how the Internet’s dark twin fuels cybercrime and strengthens digital privacy

The dark web is often portrayed as a haven for criminals – and although the image is dramatized, there is some truth to it.

The dark web is the part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines. It can only be accessed using a special browser called Tor, short for The Onion Router.

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Unlike publicly accessible websites that end in .com and .org, domains on Tor end in .onion.

While you can access so-called clearnet sites on Tor, connecting an onion site to Chrome or Safari will not return results.

Tor works by routing Internet traffic through a series of volunteer-operated servers, known as relays, which scramble the data multiple times.

This process creates layers of encryption – hence the “onion” metaphor.

Each relay decrypts a single layer, revealing only the next destination and not the full routing path, thus ensuring anonymity.

Tor was released to the public as an open source project in October 2002. By the end of 2003, the network had about a dozen volunteer nodes – and it only grew from there.

The software is now maintained by the Tor Project, a non-profit organization whose mission is rooted in the values ​​of online freedom and security.

Although the dark web is commonly described as a lawless land, the United States government has always maintained some sort of browser presence.

To give you an idea of ​​the depth of this involvement, the US military was actually involved in the early days of Tor.

The network was originally designed for the United States Naval Research Laboratory in the mid-1990s.

The goal was to protect the online communications of U.S. intelligence agencies and military personnel by providing them with a way to transmit sensitive information without revealing their location or identity.

Dark web sites are as diverse as those on the clearnet, but some rumors are rooted in truth.

In addition to highly publicized drug markets, Tor has emerged as a place for hackers to buy and sell stolen information.

In May, a group called ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for a TicketMaster hack that exposed private data of more than 500 million account holders.

ShinyHunters attempted to sell this information for $500,000 on a shady website called BreachForums, which has disappeared and resurfaced several times.

While it’s unclear whether the group made the sale before the site was taken offline again, the breach reaffirmed how clearnet’s dark twin is more than just a fantasy.

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Historically, criminals have favored the dark web for its anonymity – but that also makes it a valuable privacy tool.

For example, Tor can help civilians escape mass surveillance. Sites banned in certain countries have .onion equivalents, including Facebook and outlets like the BBC and The New York Times.

Russia has been trying to cut off access to the network for years and successfully blocked the main Tor Project website in 2021.

In China, civilians are at the mercy of the Great Firewall, which blocks access to certain foreign websites.

While Tor itself is not illegal in the country, virtual private networks are – and authorities could argue that they serve the same purpose.

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In addition to ensuring personal safety, the dark web is also a place where whistleblowers can safely share tips with journalists.

WikiLeaks is perhaps the best-known whistleblower organization on the dark web.

While the group has faced much controversy, it has also exposed human rights violations at the hands of governments.

This includes leaks about US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq and a helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2010 that killed two Reuters journalists.

Using the dark web to anonymously broadcast tips proved so effective that the CIA unveiled its own onion website in May 2019.

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It’s important to note that the dark web is not a lawless land either. There has been an increased police presence on Tor in recent years

Authorities often create “honeypots,” or seemingly legitimate websites, designed to catch offenders.

Many websites that offer illicit content are actually supervised by members of law enforcement who have assumed the identity of the website operators.

Many of the biggest drug markets – AlphaBay, Empire Market, White House Market and others – have fallen over the past decade.

One of the most famous websites, Silk Road, was closed by the FBI in 2013.

Creator and operator Ross Ulbricht was slapped with multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and conspiracy to traffic narcotics.

Ulbricht, who operated under the alias “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was found guilty of all charges in February 2015 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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The Silk Road shutdown only galvanized law supervision to go after other sites with equal enthusiasm.

White hat hackers and IT professionals have noticed an increase police presence on the network in recent years.

Cybersecurity expert John Hammond has spent much of his time on the dark web.

“I think it’s still used for government tracking or investigative opportunities, using that legal lens to see what criminals are doing,” Hammond told The US Sun.

“I see that a lot of it is fraud, or hoaxes, or things that influence primal instinct or human desires.”

Hammond noted that child exploitation sites are in full swing, although he does his best to “stay away from them” while looking for data leaks.

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“Ransomware actors will attempt to publish any data stolen from a company they hacked or a business they breached,” Hammond explained.

“They use this to stake their claims – hey, we hacked these people and this is how they’re getting back at us for them not paying us X million Bitcoins or something.”

The cybersecurity researcher recalled the time he found a passport “of a real person, with their photo” – and it was this experience that made the issue “come to life” for him.

“That’s not very scary, but it kind of made me clear, like, yeah, this could be very real,” Hammond said.

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He noted that some of the more extreme rumors about the dark web could be true, based on users’ search behavior.

“Maybe I’m pessimistic, but I feel like people really like horror stories,” Hammond said.

“Historically, among the Silk Road and many other dark and scary things, it had an aspect of reality.

“Seeing search engine results about live-streamed torture – it’s amazing to know that this could exist.