The Deep, Dark Web: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
“The Hidden Web”, or more commonly known as “The Deep Web”, is a fraction of the Internet that is not indexed by standard search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etcetera. The reason for this is due to the fact that standard search engines cannot directly access data that is held in databases, which makes it extremely difficult for search engines to index. So, if standard search engines cannot access the Deep web, what can? And what is the primary purposes and intentions of people who use it? Even though the average, ordinary person like you and I have no business to conduct there, there are others who are not so ‘ordinary’, those who may use the Deep Web for either mere casual leisure, or downright nefarious purposes. Those with good intentions on venturing into the Deep, Dark web ostensibly seem to use it for a variety reasons, whether it is a journalist who lives in a highly oppressive region of the world, or someone who simply wants to watch a country-restricted YouTube video, the Deep Web, or namely the “Tor” permits them these freedoms. On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, there are malicious individuals who use the Deep web for a variety of illicit purposes. For instance, there was found to be an abundance of criminal activity on this particular Deep Website called the “Silk Road” – a place where people buy illegal drugs, as well as an assortment of other illegal contraband. Additionally, it had gained a copious amount of notoriety and fame as an illegal marketplace before “it was shut down in 2013 for its illegal activity and transactions, and it is “estimated that the marketplace had accumulated 1,400 vendors, 957,079 registered users, and it had brokered more than...
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...information. Although, this is most likely due to the very scarce information and research was done on this particular topic. Nevertheless, the main purpose of this research was to explain what the Deep Web is, what and how someone accesses it, the history behind Tor, and the history of cryptocurrency and how its implications on Deep Web marketplaces, and lastly; the positive and negative attributes of the Deep Web. I neither condone nor do I disapprove of the usage of the deep web, so long as it abides the law and upholds positive morality. I do not recommend that the technologically inexperienced venture into the Deep Web, nor the Dark Web, without having first gained enough proper knowledge. My only advice would be not to visit the Deep, Dark Web to begin with, as common sense usually prevents careless actions, whether it be on the Surface web, or on the Deep Web.
“The Onion Field” directed by Harold Becker is a true story, set in the 1960’s, about two men named Greg Powell (James Woods) and Jimmy Smith (Franklyn Seales) who meet through a mutual friend. The two men become close and soon become business partners. They go around together robbing places such as stores to get money. On one excursion to gain some money, they are stopped by two Los Angeles Department police officers named Karl Hettinger (John Savage) and Ian Campbell (Ted Danson). When Campbell asks Powell to step out of the car, he grabs him and puts a gun to his back, pushing him around to the other side of the car. Powell forces the other officer, Hettinger, to hand over his gun to Smith. Without a choice he does so. Powell and Smith take the officers prisoner and drive them out to a middle of nowhere onion field in Bakersfield, California. Powell ends up shooting Campbell once in the mouth, but not before mentioning the Lindbergh Law. He later shoots him four more times while Smith shoots at Hettinger who has escaped. After Smith escapes with the car, Powell is arrested and blames the shooting on Smith. Over several years an investigation and trial goes on to find out the true events of that night. Both men are sentenced to the gas chamber and wait for their time in prison. In the meantime, Hettinger is suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as depression and keeps having nightmares about what occurred that night. He loses his jobs and begins stealing as a coping mechanism. After some time, Powell and Smith get a re-trial and are sentenced to life. After the trial, Hettinger is offered a job in Bakersfield, near the onion field. He and his family move out there. Eventually he learns to deal with the...
Picture an innocent looking online marketplace, similar to those in which you shop for discounted books on Amazon or cheap surfboards on eBay, except you have the option to purchase marijuana, acid, fake passports and licenses, hacking services and potentially the ability to “order a hit” on someone, this my friends, is the Silk Road and it does have a captain. He goes by the alias of “Dread Pirate Roberts,” he’s pocketed $80 million in commissions, and he is the operator of one of the most notorious online black markets which accumulated $1.2 billion in total sales with its nearly one million customers. Shortened to DPR, Ross William was the operator of the site Silk Road, until he was eventually arrested at the beginning of October this year, with the fully operational website and assets summing $4 million being seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Being named after the historical network of trades routes that allowed the integration of cultures spanning from Europe to Asia, Silk Road was home to trade of all sorts of contraband by allowing goods and services to be traded illegally, basically operating outside the formal economy. [1][2]
Bitcoins function as a completely anonymous form of digital currency. They allow people to make peer-to-peer transactions without ever making contact with the individual or exchanging any type of personal information (Zetter par. 6). This allows for quick worldwide transactions but also allow for more criminals to access an account. Since Bitcoins are a digital currency, they are kept and traded completely online. This digital currency functions mainly on the “Deep Web”, which is a part of the internet where many hidden illegal activities take place. To access the Deep Web, all one needs is software (Grossman par. 1-5). This is the area in which Bitcoins thrive since it is hard to regulate what happens on the Deep Web.
A son who kills his own father, marries his own mother, and is both the father and brother of his mother’s children. Oedipus, meaning “swollen foot”, grows up with adopted parents and a brooding prophecy on his heels. The frightful tale of Oedipus and his indescribable fate play out in the Greek theatrical production of Oedipus Rex. The horrible destiny for Oedipus is inevitable due to the unfavorable traits given to him by the author, Sophocles. Throughout Oedipus Rex, Sophocles masterfully weaves Oedipus’ fatal traits of naiveté, arrogance, and curiosity into the intriguing plot.
One shining example of the dark side of the net is known as the “deep web.” Charlie Fripp of IT News Africa writes that the deep web is “a collection of webpages that are not indexed by search engines, or content that is not part of the Surface Web.” The deep web is said to be many hundreds of times bigger than the surface web, or the web that we can normally access at any given time. To access the deep web, you need client side programs, like Freenet or the Tor Browser. Currently, the program with the most exposure would have to be the Tor browser – but not for any good reasons at all.
Since its creation, the Internet has continuously grown in importance as a means to obtain information. This is due in part because it is not censored like the rest of America’s mainstream media, such as television, newspapers, and the radio. Nevertheless, the issue of censorship has raised many controversial issues, not only in the United States, but also throughout the world. In the debate by Intelligence2 (2008): Google Violates its Don’t be Evil Motto, it is argued that Google has violated its self declared motto that it wouldn’t be evil, thus putting people’s interest before their own corporate financial interests. While Google has committed certain questionable acts I do not believe they have violated their motto. Harry Lewis, Randal Picker, and Siva Vaidhyanathan argue that this violation is exposed in Goggle’s agreement to cooperate with the Chinese government in exchange of a larger monetary market and in its advertisement market (Intelligence2, 2008). Nevertheless, Esther Dyson, Jim Harper, and Jeff Jarvis argue that while such actions have occurred, the good it has brought to the over all population exemplifies their don’t be evil motto.
The deep web is a very dangerous place. A lot of criminal activity is through out the deep web ("What is the deep web and what dangers does it pose"). There are illegal markets on it, illegal weapons are sold, drugs are sold, and people can be hired to kill someone. There are many more things that are on the deep web but those are just a few examples ("What is the deep web and what dangers does it pose"). The deep web contains may things that people don't have access to on a daily basis: "the deep web refers to web content that is not indexed by search engines such as Google"(What is the deep web and what dangers does it pose").
The internet is arguably the most used feature of today’s society. There is almost nothing that you cannot find on the internet. However, the information found is not always accurate information. I did a search of “privacy and security on the internet” on a Google (a free search engine). I then did the same search using the EBSCOhost’s Academic Search Premier database which is a subscription type search engine. I am going to evaluate the accuracy, authority, objectivity, and currency of the sources that came from these two search engines. Evaluating the websites that you retrieve information from is very important to understand the validity of the source.
Part of the allure of the Internet has always been the anonymity it offers its users. As the Internet has grown however, causing capitalists and governments to enter the picture, the old rules are changing fast. E-commerce firms employ the latest technologies to track minute details on customer behavior. The FBI's Carnivore email-tracking system is being increasingly used to infringe on the privacy of netizens. Corporations now monitor their employees' web and email usage. In addition to these privacy infringements, Internet users are also having their use censored, as governments, corporations, and other institutions block access to certain sites. However, as technology can be used to wage war on personal freedoms, it can also be employed in the fight against censorship and invasion of privacy.
With an entity as vast as the Internet, it is not surprising that a variety of unanswered questions will arise. I’m positive that the Internet will continue to confound scholars as it continues to quickly evolve. By analyzing the views of the celebrants and skeptics, I have been able to understand the potential that the internet has. By using the PEC, I have been able to understand how democracy and capitalism relate to the issues of the Internet. In the future, I hope that society can develop a further understanding of the Internet and move toward the Internet that the celebrants had hoped for.
In today’s world everyone is online and as everyone has moved into the cyber world so have the world’s criminals. What was invented as a way for scientists to do research in remote locations has become a metaphoric playground for the lawless. The internet a place where we all go in our down time; where Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest all live is a wonderful and amazing technological break though that has completely modeled our existence today, but there is a dark side to the internet the “dark net” (Gerdes). Cyber-crime is quickly becoming the hottest mechanism of crime in the world. Some of the ways that cyber-crimes are replacing traditional crimes are like burglary being replaced by hacking into networks or private computers, phishing for information online instead of deception calling, internet extortion instead of physical extortion, and online fraud as opposed to face to face fraud.
In the January 18th, 2012 New York Times article “The False Ideals of the Web”, Jaron Lanier attempts to take a very difficult issue – one that many view in terms of black or white – and find some middle ground. Unfortunately, what he ends up doing in the article is create an either/or situation, rather than find any middle ground. In the end we are left in the same situation that we started with.
“As in the past, it is criminals who have been among the first to recognize the potential of a wide-open, sparsely populated, and poorly policed space (Fuller 11).” That is exactly what cyberspace was in the beginning, and most of it is new territory still. One way to become aware of the cyber-crimes one can fall victim to is to first know what types are out there. The top five cyber-crimes are the following: tax-refund fraud, corporate account takeover, identity theft, theft of sensitive data, and theft of intellectual property (Singleton 2). Also, all cyber-crimes have three things in common; the tools needed to commit the crime, a strategy on how to follow through with the crime, and the outcome which is the crime itself (Singleton 2). There are also different forms...
Exploring The Internet The Internet is like a network of networks where any computer can link up to information stored within it. It is accessed by a telecommunications line and a modulator-demodulator (MODEM). It is brought to your computer screen by converting analogue telephone signals into digital computer signals. There are many advantages and disadvantages on the Internet.
Term Paper: The History of the Internet The Internet began like most things in our society, that is to say that the government started it. The Internet started out as an experimental military network in the 1960s. Doug Engelbart prototypes an "Online System" (NLS) which does hypertext browsing, editing, email, and so on. The Internet is a worldwide broadcasting resource used for distributing information and a source for interaction between people on their computers. In 1973, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated a research program to investigate techniques and technologies for interlinking packet networks of various kinds.