The Dark Web
Dark web sounds creepy, and ominous. It is an overlay network built on the Internet, but separate. Often it is designed to be used anonymously, and thus leans towards illegal activity. The servers/networks are "dark" because they are not out in the open for the world to see. It is unregulated, and no one is really in charge of it. And, it may surprise you to find out who created it!
The dark web is often only accessible through encrypted networks like Tor ("The Onion Routing" project) which exist to anonymize network connections at both ends through a complicated and random set of relays and multi-layered encryption. Therefore the dark web is often used for ransomware, buying and selling drugs or weapons, child pornography, scams, or many other kinds of illegal activity. Because of the security concerns some web sites and services block known Tor "exit nodes" where traffic surfaces to the actual Internet.
On the other hand, Tor can also be used to keep one's identity confidential, especially in countries with oppressive governments. The BBC, CIA, and New York Times maintain .onion sites for people whose governments block the actual site. Whistleblower sites and journalists also use Tor to keep identities confidential.
To use the dark web, one must use special Tor software to access the network, and have specific server names, with likely many random characters that end in .onion. These URLs often change regularly, and these sites cannot be found by normal search engines, so there are special "directory" sites that have evolved to list those URLs.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory created the project that became Tor, in 1995. In 1997 it shifted to DARPA which later gave it over to several civil rights organizations. One theory is that opening up Tor to the public allowed any communication on Tor to not be immediately associated with American spies.
Tor is not dependent on any one thing, and even if entire countries' Tor networks were shut down it would continue to function. While there has been international coordination to seize and shut down illegal sites, it is difficult and usually requires cooperation from multiple countries and Interpol.
Generally speaking, we at ITS suggest avoiding the dark web and staying in the light!
August 2022
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