By You might have heard of the Internet, I mean the general internet whereby you just log in or type your www dot etc and get what you want. Well that’s not what we are talking about in this particular article.
Lets take a look an even threatening and most dangerous kind of internet known as the Dark Web or the Dark Internet. As the name implies, this internet is dark, dirty, murky and dangerous and only the worlds most notorious criminals i.e assassins, special stones dealers and credit card hackers trade.
By Michael Gwarisa
One of the biggest reason why the government of Zimbabwe is moving in to intensify their Cyber security systems through legislation and technology upgrades is due to the rise of Cyber terrorism or crimes being committed over the internet by some daring individuals.
Cyber Security Expert, Caid Zvawanjanja told a HealthCare Fraud Indaba yesterday that the Dark Web was a place where the darkest dealings happen without trace of even the most technologically equipped governments.
“The internet that we deal with every time where we just type www.com is just a tip of the iceberg. There is what is known as the Dark Web. This is now beyond what you see. Most of our data that is stolen is not happening on the visible web but in the deep or dark web.
You can download it, you can go to www.tor.org. But be careful because it is a very dark place where dark things happen. Whatever you want, you can get in the deep web, be it an assasin, diamonds dealer e.t.c,” said Zwawanjanja.
He added that the reason there is an increase in healthcare fraud was due to the dark web as the cyber terrorists can hack into systems of medical aids companies and healthcare providers and temper with their systems and steal whatever information they want.
Darknet websites are accessible only through networks such as Tor (“The Onion Router”) and I2P (“Invisible Internet Project”).Tor browser and Tor-accessible sites are widely used among the darknet users and can be identified by the domain “.onion”.
While Tor focuses on providing anonymous access to the Internet, I2P specializes on allowing anonymous hosting of websites.Identities and locations of darknet users stay anonymous and cannot be tracked due to the layered encryption system.
The darknet encryption technology routes users’ data through a large number of intermediate servers, which protects the users’ identity and guarantees anonymity. The transmitted information can be decrypted only by a subsequent node in the scheme, which leads to the exit node. The complicated system makes it almost impossible to reproduce the node path and decrypt the information layer by layer.
Due to the high level of encryption, websites are not able to track geolocation and IP of their users, and users are not able to get this information about the host. Thus, communication between darknet users is highly encrypted allowing users to talk, blog, and share files confidentially.
The darknet is also used for illegal activity such as illegal trade, forums, and media exchange for pedophiles and terrorists. At the same time traditional websites have created alternative accessibility for the Tor browser in efforts to connect with their users. ProPublica, for example, launched a new version of its website available exclusively to Tor users.
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