The Dark Net With Tor

Tor: “Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.

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Tor allows users to surf the net, chat and send instant messages anonymously, and is employed by a large form of folks for each licit and illicit functions. Tor has, maybe, been utilized by criminal enterprises, hacktivism teams, and enforcement agencies at cross functions, typically simultaneously; likewise, agencies among the U.S. government multifariously fund Tor (the U.S. State Department, the National Science Foundation, and – through the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

The human identity is worn as a mask with shapeshifting capabilities and espionage. In the real world, this mask appears simplistic; however, the internet is an abstract space of node connections that streams a wild flurry of ideas, people, and identities. One’s mask does not need a definition to stand firmly in this chaos but merely need to express what is hidden beneath the mask: humanity. That is what it means to have the right to anonymity, the freedom of expression and the right to be protected from outside entities who will stop at nothing to forcefully seize the mask along with physical data. One discourse community dedicated to protecting the rights to anonymity is the Tor Project, a worldwide group that helps create an anonymous browser to hide identity details and participates in establishing it in journalism, academia, activism, and normal users. The exploration of the rights of anonymity will be examined through the discourse community characteristics of Tor by reviewing Porters and Swales works in discourse communities, by using methods of primary investigation through interviewing Tor members, and discussing how Tor fits into Swales six characteristics of a discourse community.

Privacy is something that most people believe is not possible on the internet, but with the correct knowledge it can be possible. In Nicholas Carr’s essay “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty”, he states that “It is very easy to find information about people on the internet, even private things that people don’t expect others to be able to see” (538). People don’t realize that what they do online can affect their personal lives such as their credit score, the ads that are recommended to them, and even the cookies in their computer. While Carr may have great points, he may not have considered the ways people do have privacy. There are some ways to protect browsing, people just need to know how. Most browsers have a mode that allows people to visit sites without being tracked. There’s no history, and no cookies.

The sharing of information may well be the most advanced activity of the twenty-first century occurring across ages and backgrounds with relative ease. Nevertheless, the use of information that is aired through the internet raises several genuine concerns regarding nature, intent, source, and destination as well as the consequences of the content. This is particularly true when the information has to do with people 's identities and other activities that may touch on critical aspects of national security and unauthorized business. As such, there is a mix of reactions among individuals regarding the extent of privacy they would like regarding information that they share or retrieve on the internet. While some may have genuine concerns such as protecting their identity, others are on malicious tracks to cover their person and conduct unwarranted business on the web. The mix of concerns led to the rise of the Dark Web on darknets. A darknet is an overlay network that utilizes the public Internet but requires authorization or special software to access mainly to protect the user’s identity and location from network surveillance and traffic analysis (Sui, Caverlee & Rudesill 2003). Such trends on the internet raise the question; is the Dark Web an important and necessary tool to offset pervasive online surveillance in contemporary society or is the moral panic surrounding the Dark Web in global news media justified? The aim of this research is to answer the raised question

“Dragnet Nation” author Julia Angwin and Bruce Wayne are surprisingly similar. Both have struggles with keeping private life private, dealing with baddies, and being a bit paranoid. However, unlike Batman, “Dragnet Nation” isn’t groundbreaking. Yet despite stating obvious facts, and doing more to entice paranoia than inform, Angwin does have a solid underlying point: They key to online privacy is pseudonymity. Providing false information in order to protect oneself and others, is quite simple to apply, and can deter social engineering attacks. Be that as it may, pseudonymity can be used for less noble purposes.

Today, society is affected by the many advances in technology. These advances affect almost every person in the world. One of the prevalent advances in technology was the invention and mass use of the Internet. Today more than ever, people around the world use the Internet to support their personal and business tasks on a daily basis. The Internet is a portal into vast amounts of information concerning almost every aspect of life including education, business, politics, entertainment, social networking, and world security. (idebate.com) Although the Internet has become a key resource in developing the world, the mass use of Internet has highlighted a major problem, privacy and the protection of individual, corporate, and even government

In today’s world the internet has pros and cons. Although I believe online anonymity was initially intended to provide a layer of safety to those engaging in the use of the internet (pros), I believe this layer of safety has morphed into something sinister (cons). It is now a shield for cowards and predators hiding behind their computers, waiting to pray on their next victim. For example, an online classified such as Craigslist is a website that prides itself through the use of anonymity in an effort to protect both the seller and the perspective buyer. However, the price for this anonymity comes with great risk for the seller, and is a breeding ground for lurking

Security and privacy concerns present challenges for law enforcement combating deep web criminal activity. Crimes committed on or with the Internet are relatively new. Those crimes include illicit trade in drugs, weapons, wildlife, stolen goods, or people; illegal gambling; sex trafficking; child pornography; terrorism and anarchy; corporate and sovereign espionage; and financial crimes. Police agencies have been fighting an uphill battle always one step behind an ever evolving digital landscape and the criminals who exploit it. The novelty of the Internet begets jurisdictional and legal issues law enforcement must address while remaining ethical and holding to the code of law. Due to the anonymous nature of deep web criminal activity and the means for uncovering perpetrators, privacy concerns of citizens legally using the same software or websites are now a hot topic.

In the mid-1990’s Tor was built to support government spying operations by military programmers. The program later resurfaced in 2013 when a man named Edward Snowden “leaked a trove of secrets about U.S. government surveillance, and showed a sticker on his laptop supporting the Tor Project, the nonprofit that runs the anonymity network” (Smith). Today, Tor is software that can be downloaded online and operates like a web browser, however, it tends to move slower because it is “bouncing packets of data across several continents to protect anonymity” (Smith). The United States Department initial provided money to the Tor Project, so that many people such as journalists,

Throughout time, privacy and security have been two heavily debated topics. There has always been a struggle to find middle ground between a private environment and a secure environment, but the dawn of technology and the Internet has made this struggle even more difficult. The Internet has drastically decreased the expectation of privacy of any and all individuals that have ever used it. Technology in general can pose a threat to an individual’s physical and virtual security. The Internet has also brought forth a sense of anonymity to those looking to conceal their true identities, some of which plan to commit horrific crimes. Privacy and security go hand in hand, however security is by far the most important.

The agencies employed by governments to police the web in order to protect the vulnerable have seen an increase in child pornography and online fraud. The speed at which information can be distributed and the number of people that can be reached attracts those that are intent on causing harm. The term “cybercrime” is becoming more widely used. The financial gains that can be made and the anonymity the internet can provide, make the virtual world of cyberspace a haven for criminals. Although the internet has huge benefits for information gathering and social networking, in the wrong hands it can cause harm to the vulnerable and criminals are able to vanish into the underground with the use of false identities that are hard to track online.

The Dark Web is a term that is referred to specifically as a collection of websites that are publicly visible, but hide the IP addresses (Location) of the servers that run them. Thus they can be visited by any web user, but it is very difficult to work out who is behind and using the sites. And you cannot find these sites using any regular search engines such as google. Almost all sites on the Dark Web hide their identity and IP address using the Tor encryption tool. You can use Tor to hide your identity, and spoof your location. When a website is run through Tor it has much the same effect.

As technology has propelled forward in our exploration of knowledge relating to computers and their science it is understandable that there are still areas of this field which may yet remain unexplored. One particular field being the Dark Web, which has been defined as an area of the deep web which has, “been intentionally hidden and is therefore inaccessible through standard [web] browsers.” (Brightplanet.) Although this web has evolved over the course of many years, possibly dating back to the 1990s and the development of onion routing, it has advanced itself into an industry which no one could have ever predicted. Further as well delve deeper into this developmental occurrence known as the Dark Web, I feel that we must ask ourselves how this has evolved into what we know it as today and whether or not it represents our future or past in dealing with the internet activities.