Dark Web?

[wwkayaker]

I’m out of the loop I guess. I have seen/heard several references to the dark web recently. I have little knowledge of this domain. Has anybody gone looking for info in the dark web?

[AC]

Nice try, officer.

[wwkayaker]

Lol. That confirms that I am out of the loop. I’m watching a show on H2 called Evil Genius. Maybe it’s called the Deep Web.

[KelVarnsen]

In before lock

[wwkayaker]

Haha. This must be quite the taboo subject. Should I start thinking of my next username?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I can’t offer much that you won’t learn by reading the wiki entry on the dark web.

Let’s just say that if you aren’t into buying any or all of the following: underage stuff, guns, drugs, snuff films, sex trafficking or killers for hire, you likely have no need for the dark web. Or so I’m told.

[northcrunk]

Yep shady ####. Not worthwhile the effort if your a normal human and not a degenerate

[CaptainCrunch]

You can get great deals on pet supplies too.

Oh and sausage grinders.

[Thor]

Oh man checking out silk road back in the day on TOR was one of the most eye opening things, a website dedicated to selling drugs and a whole bunch more.

Then I found hit-men for sale, passports, hacking services and pretty much anything you could think of.

Use promo code #thorsentyou at Silk Road, I need a new Chinese passport.

[Huntingwhale]

A couple years ago I was curious and used TOR to browse it for a bit. All I noticed was it was slow as hell. It was more super annoying trying to find any link that worked. Seriously, 99% of the links were broken and lead to nothing. Nothing really cool popped up that I could remember. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

[Rathji]

Edited for clarification re: flab's post below.

The Dark Deep Web refers to anything you can't access publicly on the internet.

While this might sound notorious, any website (or portion) that does not have the content publicly indexed pretty much qualifies. This is normally due to something as simple as needing a password to access. For example, a moderator only forum on CP is part of the Dark Deep Web. I recall hearing that 95% of the internet is in the Dark Deep Web.

That said, the Dark Web is the shady parts of the Deep Web which require special software to access, like Tor. Stuff like the Silk Road, Child Porn, and other illegal material are often found here, but there are other things as well. The only time I have use Tor is to try and download the 'no cheese' versions of Star Wars episodes 1 through 3, which were taken down from YouTube due to copyright claims. While this material is technically illegal, it's not something that is often lumped into the drugs, hacking and sexual exploitation that the Dark Web has become infamous for the last few years.

[Flabbibulin]

^^^^ That is a good description, but deep and dark web cant be used interchangeably I dont think? My recollection is the dark web is only a small portion of the very large deep web. Wouldnt even old archived pages of CP be considered part of the deep web? Deep web refers to all unindexed sites and pages on the web, while the dark web is the portion of the deep web that contains illegal and/or questionable content.

Either way, I would suggest the OP watch the Silk Road documentary on youtube. Pretty interesting stuff.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

^^^^ That is a good description, but deep and dark web cant be used interchangeably I dont think? My recollection is the dark web is only a small portion of the very large deep web. Wouldnt even old archived pages of CP be considered part of the deep web?

Either way, I would suggest the OP watch the Silk Road documentary on youtube. Pretty interesting stuff.

Old CP posts that dont publicly exist anymore would be Deep Web but if they exist on the waybackmachine then I don't know if that counts.

I just double checked Wikipedia, and the definitions listed indicate that you are correct. The Deep web, which I described in my post is everything that is not publicly indexed. The Dark Web, is the portion of the Deep Web that can only be accessed by Tor or similar software.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Old CP posts that dont publicly exist anymore would be Dark Web but if they exist on the waybackmachine then I don't know if that counts.

I just double checked Wikipedia, and the definitions listed indicate that you are correct. The Deep web, which I described in my post is everything that is the publicly indexed. The Dark Web, is the portion of the Deep Web that can only be accessed by Tor or similar software.

I recall you being a sys admin? Ever had to deal with tor blocking in a firewall or web filter?

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

I recall you being a sys admin? Ever had to deal with tor blocking in a firewall or web filter?

I have never felt the need to.

The only reason I would want to from my perspective is for performance reasons. Everything else is a HR issue.

Edit: To clarify, I have probably blocked it before, as part of defaults in certain broad categories as part of a broader web filtering implementation, but I have never specifically sought out to block Tor on its own.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I have never felt the need to.

The only reason I would want to from my perspective is for performance reasons. Everything else is a HR issue.

Edit: To clarify, I have probably blocked it before, as part of defaults in certain broad categories as part of a broader web filtering implementation, but I have never specifically sought out to block Tor on its own.

Ive done a lot of work in edu, so there is a much bigger need to have safeguards in place, but I would think most corporations (small and medium anyway) trust employees not to be going down that road on a corporate network or device. I have a family member in IT for a very large European retailer though, and this is definitely something they are cautious with.

[photon]

Things like TOR and such do allow for communication in places that heavily filter the Internet, or that monitor it, that's one potentially positive aspect that I can think of.

[Jiri Hrdina]

This is a good book on the subject.
https://www.amazon.ca/Dark-Net-Insid.../dp/1612195210

Covers not just the actual dark web, but just some of the darker parts of the internet overall. Some disturbing stuff to read, but a good read regardless

[wwkayaker]

I didn’t know anything about the deep web and dark web. The deep web makes sense as it sounds akin to a storage room where old files no longer used are stored. The dark web is not something I have a use for but it sounds like a fascinating yet sordid place. I have always been intrigued by the mafia, underworld, drug trade, etc and this dark web sounds like a fit. I won’t be looking as I have no desire to see something I can’t unsee.

Years ago, I used torrent files to download various media. Is Tor the file structure for torrent?

I will watch the Silk Road documentary and check out the book.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by wwkayaker

I didn’t know anything about the deep web and dark web. The deep web makes sense as it sounds akin to a storage room where old files no longer used are stored. The dark web is not something I have a use for but it sounds like a fascinating yet sordid place. I have always been intrigued by the mafia, underworld, drug trade, etc and this dark web sounds like a fit. I won’t be looking as I have no desire to see something I can’t unsee.

Years ago, I used torrent files to download various media. Is Tor the file structure for torrent?

I will watch the Silk Road documentary and check out the book.

Tor used to stand for The Onion Router, but now it is just Tor.

It is not related to torrents, but is essentially a program you run on your computer where it encrypts your internet traffic and sends it along to another person running tor, which encrypts it again, and it bounces along like this for a while, each time gaining a new layer of encryption, which is where the onion part comes in.

Eventually, it either comes out at an exit node and goes to a website on the regular internet, or goes to a site that is addressed to only be available on the Tor network. Due to how the encryption and traffic relay work, the site itself (or anyone else along the way who is relaying traffic) doesn't know it is you who is asking for the information. This makes it a good place to host websites for illegal activities, since no one knows who is running the server or who the website visitors are.

That said, there are ways that you can get caught by tracing back payment info, which is one of the reasons Bitcoin is so popular, since you can't track it as easily. Alternatively, there are a few ways of being sloppy on the technical side that can get you traced as well.