Intro to the Dark Web: Exploring Its Secrets and Security Implications

The internet is vast, but lurking beneath its surface lies a mysterious realm known as the dark web. This hidden corner of the digital world is shrouded in secrecy and operates on a different set of rules compared to the surface web we use every day. In this post, we’ll embark on a journey to explore the dark web, its technologies, and the ways it's utilized by various actors, both good and bad.

What is the Dark Web?

The dark web is a segment of the internet that requires specialized software or encryption algorithms to access. It's estimated that only about six percent of internet content can be found on the dark web. What sets it apart from the surface web is the use of peer-to-peer connections, which vary in network configuration across different darknets.

What are Darknets?

A darknet is a specific network within the dark web that serves as an overlay network within the internet that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations, or authorizations that often use a unique, customized communication protocol. It’s the infrastructure that the dark web is hosted on, such as the nodes, relays, and servers.

The Dark Web's Double-Edged Sword

The anonymity and encryption provided by the dark web have attracted a wide range of users, both good and bad. On one hand, it serves as a refuge for citizens of authoritarian regimes, enabling them to communicate with the outside world and provide anonymous tips to whistleblowers. On the other hand, the same anonymity makes it a haven for illegal activities.

The dark web is a complex and enigmatic corner of the internet that has both positive and negative aspects. Understanding its mechanics and technologies is crucial for security, defense, and risk intelligence organizations to support investigations and analysis. By shedding light on the dark web, we hope to demystify it and promote responsible and ethical exploration of its potential.

Interested in learning more? Sign up for our course or watch a sneak peek to delve deeper into the world of the dark web and its implications for our digital society.

Preview Our Course

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to our short video on the dark web! We're going to describe what the dark web is, the primary darknets in use today, a quick history of Tor—also referred to as Onion Routing—and what activities exist on the dark web.

The dark web is a part of the internet that requires special software or encryption algorithm to access. Approximately six percent of the content that exists on the internet can be found on the dark web. One common theme that defines most darknets is that they use peer-to-peer connections, but each one differs in the network configuration.

The dark web anonymizes users and encrypts traffic through peer-to-peer connections, making it extremely difficult—if not impossible—to uniquely identify and deobfuscate users. Tor is the most popular darknet because of its ease of use. Downloading the Tor Browser Bundle from torproject.org offers immediate connection to Tor with a pre-configured browser and has over three to four million users daily. The Invisible Internet Project (I2P) is the second most widely used darknet, with 20,000 to 30,000 users. ZeroNet and FreeNet also have thousands of users every day. Other darknets that are rising in popularity are GnuNet, Interplanetary File System (IPFS), LokiNet, and Yggdrasil.

As we previously stated, Tor is currently the most popular darknet. It was first theorized and brought into existence by the Naval Research Laboratory in the late 1990s as a method to communicate with U.S. government intelligence officials and assets. The Naval Research Laboratory, along with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), later released the code as a free and open-source project to maximize transparency and decentralization. The Tor project was later founded in 2006, with the Tor browser later developed and released in 2008.

As a result of the dark web anonymizing users and making identification difficult, the environment is a haven for illegal activity, including marketplaces for the sale of controlled substances, stolen goods, and criminal services; databases containing compromised credentials; and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). However, even though this content exists on the dark web, the environment also allows for citizens of authoritarian regimes to communicate with the wider world and circumvent censorship and provide tips via anonymous services for whistleblowers.

Thanks for watching! And if you would like a demo of our award-winning software, the DarkBlue Intelligence Suite, to help with your investigations, please send an email to info@bluestoneanalytics.caci.com or visit our website at bluestoneanalytics.com.