Inside The Dark Web

Nothing is more nebulous or dubious as the vision in our minds when conjuring up the “Dark Web”. Hackers in hoodies, kids living in their mom’s basement drinking Red Bull all night cracking codes to take down websites or steal data and money. Sounds sophisticated, advanced, powerful, and almost exciting.

The truth is far from that image. The reality is not really sophisticated or exciting. It is, though, far more dangerous and common than one would expect. From the very device you are reading this from right now, most can access the Dark Web and all its danger.

Also, consider that the internet most people use personally is less than 5% of the total net (the Surface Web), with a vast majority of the net being the Deep Web (secured or access-limited) and a large portion being the Dark Web.

What is the Dark Web

The Dark Web was originally developed by the US government to help political dissidents share information and avoid censorship, by making it impossible for the IP address of a computer to be linked to an individual’s online activity. This results in untraceable online activity.

It’s internet sites that are publicly available. Sounds like Google/Bing etc. except that when searches are done on those engines, they are all indexed (tracked) and your IP address is known. It’s part of the reason why when there is an arrest law enforcement goes to the PC and hard drive so they can trace criminal intent by searches conducted. 

On the dark web the sites are intentionally unregistered with search engines and users navigate the dark web in complete anonymity and with privacy using search engines and browsers that do not trace their IP, such as the TOR browser. The TOR (the onion routing) browser is a web browser designed for anonymous web surfing and protection against traffic analysis. 

TOR is an open-source software program that allows users to protect their privacy and security against a common form of Internet surveillance known as traffic analysis. Tor was originally developed for the U.S. Navy to protect government communications. The name of the software originated as an acronym for the The Onion Router, but Tor is now the official name of the program. 

The main idea behind designing Tor was to protect the personal privacy of network users and allow them to conduct confidential business. Tor is also widely used in location-hidden services to provide anonymity to servers.

The Dark Side of the Dark Web

There are two (2) sides to the Dark Web. On the darker side, it is a haven for pornography, sex traffickers, drug dealers and purveyors of malicious code. In fact, there are literally tens of millions of stolen credit card numbers for sale and websites like the infamous Silk Road (recently shut down by the FBI but replaced with 10 more just like it) that engage in massive drug trafficking.

They even advertise for malicious code by video commercials. There’s a site called Philadelphia which advertises themselves as the “Next Gen of Ransomware”, providing a CRM database so hackers can "track" their phishing and ransomware campaigns like any other sales initiative or marketing go-to-market strategy. They request you buy you malicious code from them instead of competitors.

In fact the recent rise in data breaches and cyber-attacks is due in large part to the fact that one need not be technically-inclined anymore to be a hacker. One only needs to have criminal intent.

On the other side of the Dark Web are those who simply want to search online in anonymity. Given the massive and common data breaches that permeate the news, many are starting to turn to complete anonymity in their online usage. 

The risks are obvious but the benefits are present. Either way, businesses need to monitor traffic coming in from the Dark Web as some may be security-conscious individuals and others may be looking to mine cryptocurrency or distribute ransomware etc.

A Response to Another Clear & Present Danger

One of the main pushes for anonymity online and the related surge in Dark Web access is the unpopular data capturing that has gone too far by large tech companies, retail sites and social media.

Recently, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, stated at a national developer conference that data tracking of users online has “gotten out of control”. 

There are countless examples of organizations who are capturing our locations, searches, likes, and habits. The loss of privacy is a clear and present danger. 

Defend Yourself

We train organizations and individuals every day on best practices to stay safe. The weakest link to any organization is an untrained staff member.

To learn more about the Dark Web and how to protect yourself, your family and your organization, please feel free to reach out to me and my team.

-David

David Mauro, Managing Director, All Covered-IT Services from Konica Minolta [email protected]