THE MYSTERY OF THE DARK WEB
                     THE MYSTERY OF THE DARK WEB
INTRODUCTION
 When the FBI shut down Silk Lane, an underground 
black market, and arrested its creator, Ross Ulbricht, 
the dark web exploded into public consciousness in 
2013. 
 The FBI discovered him posing as a drug dealer on 
the dark web in an intricate sting operation involving 
an undercover law enforcement agent. 
Source: 
losspreventionmedia.com
TRACKING OF ACTIVITIES
 The FBI was able to identify and track a Silk Road 
administrator during this undercover activity, who 
gave them access to information about the Bitcoin 
account of Ulbricht. 
 When Ulbricht learned out the boss had been 
arrested, he asked the undercover agent posing as a 
cocaine dealer to kill the administrator. 
Source: 
losspreventionmedia.com
INVESTIGATION
 Investigators staged the torture and assassination 
and sent pictures to Ulbricht of what they claimed 
was the body. 
 These dubious methods eventually led to Ulbricht's 
own detention. The media immediately picked up on 
such an exciting topic.
Source: The New York Times
DARK WEB WAS KNOWN FOR 
WHAT?
 The dark web was notorious for encouraging criminal 
activities, including money laundering, cocaine sales, 
and even assassination. 
 The attraction of the anonymity and intrigue behind 
the dark web contributed to news reports; 
unfortunately a lot of disinformation was also 
propagated by this attention.
Source: 
losspreventionmedia.com
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
 The dark web is just part of the deep web of real life, 
otherwise referred to as the invisible web, the 
contents of which are not indexed by regular search 
engines. 
 This is what separates the deep web from the 
'surface web,' where the ordinary person sees 
websites indexed and easy to navigate. 
Source: www.verdict.co.uk
World Wide Web 
 The World Wide Web is just the portion that machines 
or search engines can quickly locate. 
 According to reports, the indexed portion of the site 
accounts for just five percent of the website. 
 Only with a direct URL will endless places be found, 
leaving them unavailable to the general public.
Source: www.medium.com
Do only crooks use the dark web?
 The illicit activities such as the sale of banned drugs, 
guns and fake IDs take up a lot of dark web traffic. 
 This is the chosen marketplace for malicious hackers 
to offer their malware for a fixed amount or share of 
benefit, which ensures that a cyber assault on 
unsuspecting companies and people may be carried 
out by just about anybody. 
Source: www.verdict.co.uk
Who can use the dark web?
 For legitimate purposes, some people need the dark 
web, considered only illegal in select areas, such as 
investigative journalism and whistleblowers. 
 This is also a forum for people opposing a totalistic 
dictatorship to express their opinions and make their 
voices heard.
Source: adamlevin.com
The dark web dictates a special 
browser
 A Tor browser is required for access to sites with 
the .onion domain. This browser protects privacy and 
confidentiality by encrypting end-to-end traffic from 
the websites visited by using a proxy. 
 The browser is similar to Firefox in terms of its user 
interface. 
Source: www.techradar.com
LIMITING ACCESS 
 There are endless ways of limiting access to dark web 
properties. Usually, to enter the hidden site a person 
is searching for a password is provided. 
 A VPN, proxy, anonymized network, or similar service 
would also be needed in most situations. 
Source: www.rootnation.com