Have you browsed The Dark Web? - The Bear and Badger

LarryDavid

Never browsed, never really wanted too.

There's more than enough entertainment and information on the regular web. The mysterious nature of the dark web is intriguing in a way but I doubt I could be bothered with all the technical skills required to access it or particularly want to inadvertently stumble upon the seedy underbelly that hunk talks of.

If I were in government I'd be more concerned about cracking down on drug dealing, child porn and other assorted dodginess on the dark web than I would be in monitoring everyday people's mundane google searches and amazon wish lists on the regular net.

Dark Soldier

Quite a few large dark web paedophilia boards have been shut down tbf. It's just easier to be full on anonymous down there.

beano

It's not easier. It's just as easy here.

All you're talking about is that there's a widely distributed network with a load of pre-built tools for newbies that's slower and less commercially feature rich than the consumer web. For example if you want the user experience of the darknets et al. turn java off. If you want anonymity use a VPN. But. If you want illegal drugs, an assassin, slaves, or abhorrent images or opportunities to abuse people young or old then I recommend tracking down the source in person and not leaving a digital footprint- literature suggests highly corrupt, and / or developing nations are best for these in both terms of availability and value.

AJ

Peeps be confusing the dark one and deep one again. I'm sure someone explained the difference near the start of the thread.

cockbeard

If the rumours are to be believed dark ones get deeper but yes they are conflated. I'd imagine that by the end if the year they will be the same word and we will have lost any identity for all those dormant pages full of ascii art, or when everyone became a Web developer because they had dreamweaver and geocities

JonB

beano wrote:

But. If you want illegal drugs, an assassin, slaves, or abhorrent images or opportunities to abuse people young or old then I recommend tracking down the source in person and not leaving a digital footprint

Or just have a word with yourself.

beano

Not sure about that.

Jihadists mightn't agree.

That's a great example, actually. Encrypted text messages and whatsapp groups have been thrown in the deep web class along with the forums they visit.

It's a complex catch all.

There's a lot to be said for the old skool way of distributing the JRCB on floppy disc.

Escape

LarryDavid wrote:

cracking down on drug dealing

Just lately, I've been wondering about Mexico 2040 in a world where the US had long-before legalised drugs. Quite a few possible scenarios, and I'd like to believe that one of the better ones'd prevail.

Hodge360

Just switched on "This Morning" to find them discussing identity theft and The Dark Web. Maybe more and more people will have a nose out of curiosity if this is becoming a popular topic?

cockbeard

Which will amusingly create lots of outrage.

"I researched, found, downloaded and installed lots of anonymising and encryption software and then trawled the Internet for child porn. It took ages and most of it was rubbish but eventually I found it. I'm disgusted ban this sick filth etc etc"

Please Messrs Brooker and Morris, please write about this, it's so ripe

Tempy

The worst thing about the deep web is you can probably find it all on the regular web anyway.,

[Deleted User]

Tempy wrote:

...you can probably find it all on the regular web anyway.,

This. I've run into some absolutely fucked up stuff on the regular net, stuff that has made me paranoid for days on end about some spook somewhere watching and getting the wrong idea about my thoughts and habits. No kiddie stuff, thankfully - if that had happened I'd probably have disconnected my computer there and then and burnt it in an elaborate ceremony.

beano

This is true, Tempy- which harks back to projects for police of scraping twitter for keywords in tweets with media, hashing the image and comparing it known illegal images in the Database in order to close down peado rings.

beano

Also, steakandcheese.com

Vela

This may be a nub question but wasn't TOR developed entirely by either CIA/NSA or some other three letter acronym agency as a way to enable anonymous communication from/for/through police states with high levels of government imposed censorship?

That being the case, if one had nefarious deeds afoot, it would be a silly assumption to make that TOR would cover your footprints if the agencies who created it had cause to find out who was doing certain stuff.

superflyninja

Some bad stuff has come up during (perfectly innocent) regular searches for bedroom poppadom fodder, mostly in past years. Things seem to have tightened up though, so its not likely for awful stuff to appear now. Even those glimpses cant be unseen and I honestly think a quick death would be too merciful for the perps.

beano

Vela wrote:

This may be a nub question but wasn't TOR developed entirely by either CIA/NSA or some other three letter acronym agency as a way to enable anonymous communication from/for/through police states with high levels of government imposed censorship? That being the case, if one had nefarious deeds afoot, it would be a silly assumption to make that TOR would cover your footprints if the agencies who created it had cause to find out who was doing certain stuff.

DARPA were the original "helpers" but it went through a few agencies before it got released as open source and after the Foundation was founded.

Tor does cover your foot prints but folks can act as malicious exit nodes which is where the concepts of trust are being reapplied.

XIII

Vela wrote:

This may be a nub question but wasn't TOR developed entirely by either CIA/NSA or some other three letter acronym agency as a way to enable anonymous communication from/for/through police states with high levels of government imposed censorship?

Yes I am pretty sure that's correct.

poprock

The deep web, yesterday:

Yossarian

beano wrote:

Tor does cover your foot prints but folks can act as malicious exit nodes which is where the concepts of trust are being reapplied.

Wasn't there something in the Snowden leaks about the NSA finding a way to get around Tor? Is this that?

Yossarian

Found the link, Tor seems pretty safe: http://gu.com/p/3ja7d?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

cockbeard

XIII wrote:

Vela wrote:

This may be a nub question but wasn't TOR developed entirely by either CIA/NSA or some other three letter acronym agency as a way to enable anonymous communication from/for/through police states with high levels of government imposed censorship?

Yes I am pretty sure that's correct.

That's kinda funny, if for no other reason than up until very recently (maybe still are I dint know) the air forces of UK and USA were using iMessage, iChat, iSelfie whatever is called for target acquisition and confirmation

davyK

Had read (and been advised by people who work in cyber-security full time) that Onion protocol is pretty tight. Some exit nodes have been compromised at times but the multi-layer nature of the protocol means it isn't significant.

Could be a double bluff of course, but the protocol is open source - so unless it is systemically compromised , which is unlikely, it looks to be usable for the time being.

beano

It's solid and still maintained by an org. independent of govt. or their agencies.

Strides have been made to identify and eliminate malicious nodes in the network- though I am not sure of the specifics but let's say I am not for any of this tabloid-esq conspiracy jockeying.

Howdy, Stranger!

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