Beneath the iceberg

By: Alyson

What is the dark web?

The visible part of an iceberg represents the Internet you and I use on a daily basis. What lies beneath the iceberg, that 90% of remaining ice represents the deep and dark-web? The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets, overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. The dark web is a part of the internet that isn't indexed by search engines. You've no doubt heard talk of the “dark web” as a hotbed of criminal activity — and it is. Researchers Daniel Moore and Thomas Rid of King's College in London classified the contents of 2,723 live dark web sites over a five-week period in 2015 and found that 57% host illicit material. 

Although it is not illegal to enter the dark web, it is illegal to view sensitive information on the dark web such as banned films. The dark web is mainly a hub for illegal trade, illegal video access, anonymous communication highly used by terrorist organization and hackers.

How to tell if you are inside the dark web

It’s most unlikely that you will be able to access the dark web considering how hard is it to find. Just like the iceberg from a distance you can only notice the tip of the iceberg but as you get closer and closer you notice the large amount of remaining ice beneath it, similarly for the dark web, at first it will be hard to find but as you keep digging further you will eventually reach your destination. t is not that easy to enter deep/dark web as owners of all illegal sites use some algorithms to let them hidden but let’s say you got lucky and you found it.

Dark web sites also use a scrambled naming structure that creates URLs that are often impossible to remember. For example, a popular commerce site called Dream Market goes by the unintelligible address of “eajwlvm3z2lcca76.onion.” (most websites on the dark web end with. onion not .com)

Why does the dark web exist? And who created it?

The dark web was actually created by the US government to allow spies to exchange information completely anonymously. US military researchers developed the technology, known as Tor (The Onion Router) in the mid-1990s and released it into the public domain for everyone to use.

The reason was so that they could stay anonymous - it would be harder to distinguish the government's messages between spies if thousands of other people were using the same

system for lots of different things. Tor now hosts roughly 30,000 hidden sites.

How dangerous is the dark web?

While most of the activity accessed through Tor is not illegal, the dark web does have many criminals using it for illegal purposes. Even if you don’t access the dark web to pursue anything illegal, you may run into criminals there and get caught up in something you never intended to be involved with.

Like hanging out in a mob restaurant, you may find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time and get caught in the crossfire. If authorities do end up catching cybercriminals in the act, you could end up drawn into the investigation if they can prove you had contact with them. Some authorities may even consider you guilty just for associating with cybercriminals on the dark web even if you haven’t done anything wrong yourself.

Another danger of the dark web is malware and ransomware—most malware is transmitted over the dark web and then used on public access websites, so being on the dark web can put you in danger of coming into contact with malware or ransomware that can cripple your business or even steal your identity.

According to ‘the Irish times’ A “regular” murder can be arranged for $45,000, while making a victim disappear without a trace costs $60,000. A straightforward crippling is $12,000 but if the aim is to “uglify” a person – or have acid thrown in their face – the price rises to $18,000.

A beating costs $3,000. A rape is $8,000.

This menu of murder and mayhem is among the more distressing things cyber-security expert Paul Dwyer summons from the dark web from his darkened office outside Malahide, but it’s by no means the only indication of just how vile people can be.

Millions of images of children being abused constantly change hands in this murky marketplace, and websites aimed at encouraging vulnerable teenage girls to starve themselves before committing suicide are easy to find.

Once you enter the dark web there is no going back, the computers, software we use are not strong enough to protect us from what lies beneath the dark web.