What You Should Know About the Dark Web

The Dark Web: Two Truths and Two Myths

MARVIN TAN

Member, SCS Senior Vice-President, GIC

In 2019, famous ex-fraudster Frank Abagnale Jr. claimed that what he did in his heyday would have been 4,000 times easier today with the internet1. Despite law enforcement agencies pulling out the big guns these days to look for cyber criminals – there exists a hidden corner of the web where drug markets operate and weapons go on sale. What is the Dark Web – and can you find them all?

Indeed, we see scammers on the rise on social media and hate crimes perpetrating through the internet. This is despite governments constantly on the move trying to monitor what goes on in the digital world. So where do people go to avoid being caught? That would be the Dark Web.

But before we conclude that the Dark Web is truly dark, how about putting some of these conceptions to test and dispel the myths? An extremely encrypted part of the internet, the Dark Web is accessed with the help of a special browser – Tor. This browser allows you to go anywhere without revealing your location or identity – making it impossible to regulate or censor what goes on inside. Users include anyone who wants to hide away from the authorities or stay secretive.

MYTH: THE DARK WEB IS ALWAYS DARK.

No one really knows who turned the Dark Web dark, but Tor was inadvertently created by US Navy researchers trying to create a browser that allowed intelligence to be exchanged safely in the 1990s. Tor was eventually released as open source, picked up by legitimate users, won lots of awards – and the rest is history. At some point, there was even an ironical situation where a federal organisation was funding Tor’s research while the FBI was trying to crack the browser.

Currently, it is being used by millions of people – for some of the worst things a person can dream of as well as some of the most valuable things (e.g. privacy, freedom of speech) to society. Of course, there are also the ones in-between such as human activities nets, whistleblowers and organisations trying to stay away from state scrutiny.

TRUTH: THE DARK WEB IS AN EFFICIENT MARKETPLACE.

If you use Lazada or Amazon, you will agree that you rely heavily on reviews and ratings to compare products and pull that final trigger. You might still pick up a lemon once in a while – but you can always complain to the seller or platform and demand a refund. Same goes for that expensive $10,000 handbag that you bought online from LV – you don’t have to worry about it not being delivered. After all, the public marketplace is well-regulated and we can simply turn to law enforcement bodies to get justice.

On the Dark Web – it will be hard to know who you can turn to if you missed a shipment of firearms or got less than what you ordered from Silk Road2. In place of regulatory scrutiny is however a marketplace that is just as efficient – reputation, forums, reviews and established trust systems – with little frills and marketing. They are a parallel to black markets in the real world – functioning as hyper competitive markets and creating “better products” which are hazardous to our society.

MYTH: YOU CAN’T CATCH SOMEONE IN THE DARK WEB.

Just like the biographical movie “Catch Me If You Can” where conman Frank Abagnale was eventually caught, we can catch someone in the Dark Web if we really try. In the shadows of the Dark Web are human beings – and humans make mistakes. Like everyone else, they have weaknesses that can be latched onto by the authorities.

Notably, we have seen examples of traffickers and pornography distributors being successfully apprehended. One of the most high-profile arrests being that of Ross Ulbricht3 – the person behind the largest internet drug market, Silk Road. What’s more? Crime fighting has arrived at the next level with plenty of digital undercover work as well as mechanisms such as Honeypots to lure criminals.

TRUTH: THE DARK WEB IS ONLY AS DARK AS ITS USER.

To a normal person like me who spends copious amounts of time surfing the net every day, it is actually incredibly easy to access the Dark Web through Tor. But often, it becomes difficult to tell whether you are walking along safe paths of the ginormous internet forest or veering into dangerous dark marshes.

Thankfully, the mechanics of the Dark Web and the ever-present cyber police prevent the Dark Web from being totally open to everyone. Criminal forums in the Dark Web are usually invite-only – you can’t just walk into an e-shop to buy a bazooka and get it delivered to Bedok. So after this article, think twice before you download Tor to enter the dark side. In fact, there are many deterrent media out there sharing how the Dark Web is surveilled, such as the video “This is How the FBI will Catch You on the Dark Web”4 .

But for geeks who see this as a cybersecurity lesson? You will find this visual guide5 on how Tor works very fascinating – and see “onions” in a different light.

WHAT ARE THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER REVEAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

In a CNBC interview6, Frank Abagnale drew on his illustrious ex-career and shared three things that we should never post on social media. With these three pieces of information, your identity can be stolen in a matter of seconds:

BIRTH PLACE DATE OF BIRTH STRAIGHT-ON SELFIES

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace) 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Ulbricht 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2IC4VQcxyo 5 https://skerritt.blog/how-does-tor-really-work/ 6 https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/14/frank-abagnale-from-catch-me-if-you-can-talks-about-social-media.html