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Week 8 [04.12 - 10.12.2017] Deepweb

Deepweb. Dark site of the internet?

I suppose that you’ve already heard about the deep or dark site of the internet. But what excactly do you know? It’s hidden network for popular browsers like Google, Yahoo or Internet Explorer. Every website in the Darknet is nothing different from regular websites as common guy knows. There are forums, portals and online stores. There is only one different thing… no website is available by WWW address and you can’t find them by common browsers. It’s because every address is exchanged be insider people or institutions but there are special search engines like Grams that provide access to those pages. You don’t have to be proffessional in IT to get acces to the Darknet. You need to install special web browser, just like Tor. But how does it work and what profits we are getting from? Every request is going to host by two random node points in tor. Each point erases the trace by giving other IP address and moreover - every data is ecrypted.
Is it illegal? No, everyone can use Darknet and it’s not forbidden but we have to remember - it doesn’t mean that a border between legality and illegality isn't thin. It’s the best place for criminals to exchange informations, trading illegal things like weapons or even human traffcking.
Of course it’s not only criminal environment and there are many pros of using Deepweb but let me show you short movie about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luvthTjC0OI

Questions:
  •   Have you ever heard about Darknet
  •   What do you think about privacy in Deepweb
  •   How extensive is Darknet?


Comments

Tor is quite safe as a network, I recall NSA couldn't really crack it despite of trying, which is good enough even for criminals. I've heard of darknet but personally I don't really have a need to use any hidden website, so I didn't dig deep inside.
Unknown said…
Thank you, I found this article to very interesting and informative. Like some others I have heard things about the dark net but had no real knowledge of it. Your article has pulled back the covers and given a nice introductory overview. This will allow me to be able make an educated decision to look into the underbelly or not.
BUt, It is 'scary' in one way, sort of like a back street at night. But it has its benefits.
Unknown said…
TOR was so created for criminal activity.
Unknown said…
I've heard a lot about the deep web, especially that I actually knew of people in Sweden who used it for illegal things. The most common thing was using it for obtaining drugs, which is the most popular way of doing so. It's very easy, you just have to get a post box (which you still can get anonymously!) and then make orders on the dark web for whatever you please. It is actually a bit scary when you think of how easy it actually is. The same goes for e.g. weapons. Using cryptocurrencies for purchases makes it even harder to find the person who buys or does illegal things on the deep web.

On one hand, I think it's noones business to know what I'm looking for online. On the other hand there are so many people that abuse the freedom on the internet (in general) that I realize it would be much better if there would be no possibility to be anonymous on the internet. If everyone used their name and surname, there would be much less bad stuff going on. If people wouldn't be able to hide behind their nicknames, they would most often not insult others, not attack sites, not steal from people, not do other illegal stuff, because they would be easily traceable. Even calling people names would be a piece of cake to fine a person for, without having to do huge investigations to find out who it was. To sum it up, even though it is convenient to be private and anonymous on the internet, I think that it should not be that way and would save us from many problems internet in general brings us.

When it comes to how extensive the dark web is, I am no expert, but it is said to be even larger than the 'visible' web. That is a quite scary thought, especially for people who never had any contact with it, or even knew it existed.
Alicja said…
The deep web is a very interesting topic :)

I would just clarify that deep web does have WWW resources, they are just not indexed by popular web search engines.

I once had to collect information about cyber breach events from OSINT and deep web for my start-up (providing assessment of the cyber incident risk). I quickly realized it was impossible to access any valuable information on deep web cybercrime forums if you were not an invited and trusted member. Even on the forums that are not as exclusive as Darkode.com or Hell there is not much information to collect if you were not their verified contact. The public parts of forums were a bunch of kids exchanging textbook SQL injection scripts and db dumps from some obscure websites. KrebsOnSecurity wrote an interesting post about it: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/04/fool-me-once/

The privacy aspect is a very difficult matter. I don't think it is safe to assume anonymity when using Tor or, in general, when browsing resources on the deep web.
It was about 5 years ago when i heard something about tor browser, but couldn't even imagine what does it mean. And after some time i installed it and started using. My first feeling was like wtf, why there are another search queries, not the same like in google or yahoo. And i was so scared, that i deleted it after 1 day.
I think there is no need for such as "darkweb privacy", not because we are not secured now or it is easy to find information about us, you just only need to keep your "private files" away from internet, that's it.
There are no borders in darkweb, it's like a space,how you can calculate where is the end ?
Foodocado said…
Yes, I heard about darknet. I also saw many documentary films about it. It quite interesting and huge topic. About the privacy in internet / darknet there are as many opinions as people. I believe we should be able to use internet anonymously. The size of the deepweb is like the universe, it can not be measure and it's all the time increasing.
Unknown said…
Although the information shared on this episode of TED TALK is quite useful, initially it scared me from trying TOR and darknet at all. I imagine the effect is shared among many others who are new to online anonymity. It has a great potential for good, but it would appear that most of the deep web sites are highly dangerous, and any small mistake would cost the individual their computer or years in federal prison, nearly for accidentally clicking on the wrong link. I would gladly join darknet if only it had a safer design overall.
Unknown said…
I have heard about deepweb but never been there. Somehow 4chan and russian webpages are enough for me :)
Unknown said…
I've heard about darknet. Well, the existence of it is not really such strange thing. I'm not sure, what kind of privacy you can expect in it. For me, it is like PvP zone in some MMORPG - if you are not ready to defend yourself, it is better to not enter it.
Unknown said…
I have heard some things about darknet. I thought it was used by bad poeople to buy illegal things. I don't see how it could be used by legal people. Why would they hide their privacy?
Magdalena Popek said…
Yes, I've heard about the Darknet but I don't feel the need to access it. That's why I don't need Tor. Incognito mode is enough for me. Actually I know nothing more about the Darknet than that it's probably mostly used for illegal things.
Marcin Górski said…
I've heard about Darknet but I've never thought that it can help me in something. I associate it with place when bad people can buy a illegal things. I often use "incognito mode" (Chrome) and I hope that make me anonymous on the Internet! :D
I have heared about Darknet and it intrigues me.
It is said that in Deepweb everyone is anonymous but as a person who have never tried it I can't say anything more.
Darknet probably is extremely extensive and it will getting wider and wider.
There's a pretty good documentary about dark web call "Down the Deep Dark Web" if someone's interested.
Tomasz Morawski said…
I did heard about Darknet and I believe it's very interesting phenomenon. It certainly is very good way to make some illegal business but it also has a lot of positive aspects. It's very good way to control the government, especially now, when almost everyone wants to censor Internet.
I like that privacy in Deepweb is highly respected and it's very difficult to identify someone. It may seem suspicious to some but we should remember that not everything that's bad is also illegal and not everything that's illegal is also bad.
"Deep Web" was also pretty good.
I've heard about dark net in the past, though I've never felt the need to use it. I agree however, that in the age of blanket data collection and widespread data mining, our privacy is our greatest possession. Unfortunately most people don't care and routinely put all their personal data on Facebook for the whole world to see.
Its pretty interesting how both the Internet and the Dark Web started their lives as Ministry of Defence projects with intended applications for the American army, and yet both are now used by dissidents all over the globe to propagate freedom and other positive values.
Jakub Lisicki said…
I really like the concept of dark web and it's privacy levels. Of course it's being used for some shady and illegal business as well, but as long as we're not committing the crime ourselves, we shouldn't be worried. At least that's how it should be, because in fact - we can land under surveillance just for using and connecting to the tor network. It's not really like the author of the post said - there are ways of accessing it even without having the TOR browser, just not as safe. Using the special browser isn't safe enough either - we should use specially prepared live linux distributions instead, preferably on separated machines with high levels of encryptions.
As it comes to the privacy inside of it - we can't know which nodes we should really trust. It's after all other people's computers which can perform some nasty actions without us knowing about it.
How extensive it is? It's enormous. We can use TOR browsers to find some of the websites, but still most of them are either hidden from it or guarded with passwords or invite-only mechanism. Usually the only way to get to the deeper parts of dark-web is to gain other people trust inside it - like committing crimes they want you to commit.
Unknown said…
"Oh bois and/or gurls"...
You are mixing two different terms and make up some strange definitions...
Heres the link for visual comparison:
https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-8611ffe8ac2ebbb7bd28db70224227e5-c
So, as we see, the Darknet is subset of Deepweb - its not just unindexed, but also requires you to use some special tools to get there.
DeepWeb is basically everything that can't be indexed by search engines' creawlers.
Just disable browsing/listing contents of a directory on your server and BAM!, you've just created part of that bad, corrupted and criminal Deepweb, as folks won't find it in google...
Also, one of the reasons the so-called DeepWeb is so big, is because those "hidden files" are usually part of some websites/services- assume you lock /images directory on your server (which you really should do btw.), so that people can't list its contents.
It is now in deepweb, cause visitors will only see the images you want them to see, and you have 1000+ of images in that folder, yet you share only one image to the public. You have now created hundreds of megabytes of DeepWeb, ain't that great? Even if you log into your bank account, you are accessing deepweb- it's not so scary now, isn't it? In most cases it is there is your privacy.

When it comes to Darknet, we are talking about far more serious stuff- first, you need to get yourself TOR browser and configure it properly (please oh please, don't make your computer an exit-node- you will basically become a bridge between surfaceweb and darknet, guess where all those beefy guys with "CBŚP" letters on their backs will knock first). Then you have to know where and what to look for, and last but not least- You have to have some reputation, or money to get it, as no one will share "the fun stuff" with you for free, except old leaks and exploits patched long ago. As for other uses, TOR is way slower and requires you additional setups, so I don't think there is point in other uses than whistleblowing or some shady businesses.
Naturally although "heard" is an understatement i did indeed knew about it from before. Privacy -there is none, or there is all of it. It all depends on what u re looking for in such places, how are you securiong your information, how much information u provide in a first place and lastly did you remember not to trust anyone. Measuring deep web is an impossible task, but knowing how many things linger just on the surface i would safely assume that there is more information in a deep web than in our "Accessible" internet. Best we can picture it as a iceberg and google results are that one penguin on top of it :)
Unknown said…
Yes i have heard of it. Still it's not necesarily the best place for random user. As for the privacy it depends on how are you securing informations about yourself. Still Darknetis immesurable. There might be more informations than in our current web. You are talking about darkweb being a place where legal and illegal things havetheir place. That might be true, but deepweb? This is just a puppy in comparison to shadowweb whic could be represented as an enraged tiger.
How extensive is Darknet?
Unknown said…
I have heard about Darknet and I had even a special tor browser to check this on my own but I didn't have a idea what I could check there. I decided to remove it from my computer and left idea to check the Darknet. I have also heard that there are a lot of childs pornography or pictures from murders and I don't want to see it by an accident. Now I am not interested anymore to check it.

I don't have a knowledge how extensive the Darknet is but I think that if it is simillar to the normal Internet then the Darknet is also a very large place with a lot of informations.

Maybe I am wrong and the Darknet is a place which is interesting to check?
If the government made the darknet and we know they love spying on us, wouldn't it be wise to assume they figured out how to monitor everyone before giving everyone access? kind of like a master plan to give us the feeling of privacy but never really having it?
Yes, I have heard about Darknet before but I do not know mutch about it. I know it is used for illegal business mostly. To join the Deepweb we need to use TOR browser, that makes your Internet searching more private, but there are always ways to find the user, we often hear that someone has been caught doing something illegal through Darknet. I do not know how extensive it is.
Wojtek Kania said…
Well I have heard about Darknet. I have seen what it is and how it works. I think deepweb is pretty safe, but if you would like to be a really anonymous you should have also quatro VPN and use sockets. I think darkmarket will never die. Silk Road was captured, but there is a lot of darkmarkets in Tor ;)
Unknown said…
I heard about Darknet, I watched a lot of documentaries about it. I was interested in it when I heard that I can buy cheap stuff there. I was suprised when I read description:) If we are talking about privacy you have to use TOR for your safety. I think that deepweb is bigger than regular internet that we are using every day.
Have you ever heard about Darknet
Yes I have heard of it but never had the need to use it.
What do you think about privacy in Deepweb
Our privacy is violated everytime we are searching something or using internet so maybe darkweb is the only way to go in the future.
How extensive is Darknet?
Do not know if it's even countable.
Yevhen Shymko said…
It goes down not even to security but rather to convenience of use. When I heard about dark web the first time it intrigued me and since I'm interested in computers I downloaded Tor browser and surf through the most popular sites and it wasn't something unusual mostly drugs. For an average consumer it's enough to use browser extension to prevent sites to track you and in my opinion it would be enough.
Unknown said…
I've heard about Deepnet before. Once, with a friend, we tried to "get into there". We succeeded. In fact, as in the article, IP addresses were encrypted and it wasn't possible to enter on these WWW addresses. But thanks to another search engine, we quickly landed on the forum, where users put in variety of ads. They were really different, from ordinary household appliances to commissions for murders.
I think that Deepnet is practical because it offers us anonymity, but it also has its drawbacks. The disadvantage is, unfortunately, that its users are mostly people who are taken out of law, in other words, thugs. They know that Deepnet safeguards them before catching on misdeeds, which creates great opportunities for them.
Unfortunately, I didn't get so much into this area and I have no clue how deep Deepnet is.
Andrzej Gulak said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
sasha | s14611 said…
I heard about Darknet in a movie. I don't remember what movie it was, but there Darknet was described in very bad way. Until now I thought that it was illegal, but now I see that I can use it, but still I won't. It's too scary.
Patryk Pohnke said…
Of course I've heard about Darknet. It is known for it's illegal use.
As far as I know using Tor doesn't make you untraceable. Still there are some ways to track darkweb users, but I don't remember details what to be careful about.
I have never used it, so I don't know that, but I guess it is big enough to keep its users interested in it.
Unknown said…
DeepWeb looks very bad because people buy some illegal things without any control. They paid with bitcoin and that why noone can check who buy that thing. For me we cant do anything to protect trades on that portal.
Obviously, I have heard about Darknet. But, it's quite risky to enter it.
I think, privacy in a Deep Web is a privilege for experienced users. If you want to do some illegal stuff, you have to be prepared. Overall, I guess, everyone can be tracked down.
How extensive is Darknet? There are a lot of going on there, black market of weapons, drugs, personal documents and etc. But we have to remember that Darknet isn't always for bad things.
Unknown said…
YEAH! And Bitcoin is for criminals only! /s
Unknown said…
I've heard about deepWeeb/darknet before even though never looked into it. Used TOR network few times just to check it out as it's an interesting idea. TOR is what was created for obtaining real privacy over the internet and I guess deep weeb is a place where people feel safe to do whatever they want to keep a secret. I've also read somewhere that NSA/FBI had some success in cracking it given that you control enough in/exit nodes in the network. No idea how extensive Darknet is but as with knives it can be used for good as well for evil.

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