The darknet anonymity has backed up the websites hosted by the underground internet for the burgeoning of global criminal activities. The dark web has played a consistent host for all illicit purchases, from drugs and weapons to cyber crime. These activities keep on relying on the physically available infrastructure for economic feasibility.
However, the dark web had never been created for the proliferation of unlawful activities. This being said, it is illegal to barge into the darknet platforms that have been brought about for illegal reasons. However, this reality is not a standard thought across societies. The reason is that most people do not understand the associated risks that are thrown towards the dark web surfers. The dark web websites and the tools offering online anonymity have given rise to a false sense of safety to all the dark web sites and deep web websites. Many people believe that the dark web or the tor-based websites are beyond the grip of the international and local law enforcement agencies. But the fact is that the global police use several techniques for identifying and convicting darknet vendors and buyers. They track each and everything right from the payment to monitoring the postal system. They also analyze the wealth of the user data that is gathered in the dark web take downs. The upcoming segment will provide an insight on what you, as a dark web user, need to consider when you are visiting the darknet or the deep web to purchase illegal goods and services from various dark web marketplaces or darknet forums seeking help. ❂ The Postal Department Can Expose You Interestingly, the exponential technological advances of the dark web have not yet provided liberty to the darknet users in terms of employing the postal system for the physical deliveries of the online ordered goods. When a darknet user places an order from the dark web, say, a consignment containing drugs, they would require the services of a courier service for physically delivering the product to their location. Typically, the darknet drug dealers utilize meticulous packaging techniques for ensuring stealth as long as the parcels-for-shipment are concerned. The prospective darknet buyers are bound to understand that the postal system is not a flawless method. The global customs officials have increased their awareness regarding the strategies and tactics used by the darknet dealers for concealing the packages. They are becoming more alert on how the sellers move their illegal products across the international and as well as the local borders. As of the current situation, it seems as the offices and the post boxes have now become genuine surveillance grounds for the police departments looking forward to identifying the original faces behind the illegal dark web purchases. However, this reality is not just confined to the law enforcement agents as the post office employees are now particularly helpful in the origin identification and the contents of the intercepted parcels. One prominent example, in this case, was the Silk Road vendor's arrested back in September 2012. The law enforcement agencies could identify the man behind the illegal drug trade following a lead provided by the post office employees to the feds. ❂ Dark Web Market Seizures Can Lead Feds To The Darknet Buyers A series of anti-darknet law enforcement operations have paved the way to identification and the arrest of both the market operators and their dedicated buyers. They could be linked to the illicit activities that are facilitated by the underground platforms. Generally, whenever a vendor has been busted, or a dark web market is taken down, the law enforcement authorities uncover a wealth of fresh leads, which would empower the practical capacities of their further investigations—for example, the notorious darknet vendor "Shiny Flakes" who had been arrested back in 2015. The investigators had discovered a list of customers that they had later used to track his dark web buyers. Very importantly, the dark web users, especially the buyers, need to realize that the illegal purchases might take them into the deep dark in the near future. Like in 2016, a dark web buyer had been contacted by the feds after the law enforcement agencies had come across the buyer records that the dark web vendor had preserved with him. ❂ The Undercover Agents Lurk In The Darknet If you are lucky enough not to get trapped in the traps, as mentioned earlier by the feds, there is nothing to believe that you would never have an encounter with the worst trap. The undercover agents regularly visit the darknet marketplaces solely to identify the illegal activities and the ones who facilitate them. Like the regular police operations in the local and traditional context, the police departments or the federal agencies keep on deploying the undercover operations to capture the unsuspected illicit stuff buyers. Back in 2017, a press release from Europol had offered a glance into the methods in which the undercover police operations might be used for dismantling the dark web networks. The press release also mentioned how they identify the users cloaking behind the anonymous veil and privacy. As per the law enforcement agency, the undercover agents had used furtive means for taking over the then prominent market, Hansa Market. They had monitored the user activity without the knowledge of the owner(s). Furthermore, at the same time, the authorities had also closed AlphaBay darknet marketplace - another most famous underground market of that time. This action had seen the migration of the refugee AlphaBay buyers and the vendors in the Hansa marketplace. The authorities had taken the chance for conducting a sweep on the new entrants of the platform. Darknet seems to be a pretty fascinating place and the users tend to rush without knowing what negative impact it might have on them if they are not that careful on the dark web. Various mishaps take place on the dark web as explained in this article. People need to be serious when they are on the hidden internet and trying to buy things from the dark web otherwise they might get scammed by malicious actors or caught by law enforcement authorities. This article aims to focus on all the aspects of the mishaps occurring on the dark web and the deep web and how they can avoid such occurrences.
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The world of digital currencies has started as it vastly revolutionized the financial transaction process. The digital currencies, also known as cryptocurrencies or crypto coins, began to emerge following the trail of Bitcoin. Bitcoin (BTC) is the first-ever cryptocurrency to surface in the financial sector. Holding Satoshi Nakamoto’s hands, it was first introduced in the industry and eventually influenced the other economic creators to introduce more of such cryptocurrency. Since Bitcoin and Ethereum are two prominent names, we will stress these two in this article.
Basics Of Bitcoin Bitcoin (BTC) had been launched back in January 2009 and introduced a novel idea proposed in a white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto. Unlike the government-issued fiat currency, it offers secured transactions devoid of any central authority. Bitcoins are not physical coins, and the balances are solely associated with a public ledger that is cryptographically secured. However, Bitcoin was not the sole attempt as an online or digital currency, and it has been the most successful in its early efforts. It has resulted in being a predecessor in some way to all the virtual currencies introduced in the past decade. Over the years of trial and error, the decentralized virtual currency acquired acceptance amongst government bodies and regulators. A disheartening fact is that Bitcoin is not a formally accepted payment medium or store of value. But, cryptocurrency has been successful in carving out a separate niche for itself. It continues to co-exist with the traditional financial system irrespective of being debated and scrutinized regularly. In the initial phase of cryptocurrency booming back in 2017, the market value of Bitcoin had accounted for nearly 87% of the entire cryptocurrency market. Basics Of Ethereum Applications based on blockchain technology go beyond enabling a digital currency. Ethereum was launched back in July 2015. It is the largest, well-established, and open-ended decentralized software platform. Ethereum promotes the deployment of smart contracts along with decentralized applications (DApps) being built and run without any fraud, downtime, interference, or control of a third party. Ethereum is also entirely furnished with its own programming language that runs on a blockchain. It permits the developers for building and running the distributed applications. The promising applications of Ethereum range broadly. They are powered by their native crypto token called Ether and abbreviated as ETH. Ethereum had launched a presale of Ether back in 2014 that received an astounding response. Ether serves as the fuel for running the commands on the platform of Ethereum. The developers use it for running the applications on the platform. Ether serves two primary purpose -
Ethereum states, “people all over the world use ETH to make payments, as a store of value, or as collateral.” Key Difference And Similarities Between Bitcoin and Ethereum Let us talk about the similarities first, and then we will move on to the differences. Similarities:
Differences:
Theoretically, Ethereum must not compete with Bitcoin as it is just another use-case for a blockchain supporting the latter. From the trader's perspective, Ethereum’s popularity has pushed it to the competition zone with other cryptocurrencies as well. Also, Decentralized Finance (Defi) tokens are based on Ethereum and thus have smart contracts which make it easier to trade on different platforms. Did you ever hear the term “Dark Web”? Did it give a mysterious vibe? Well, the vibe is right. But there are some misconceptions as well which we will clear here.
The dark web, as the name suggests, is the dark alleys or the concealed zone of the internet (World Wide Web). It is the decentralized network of internet websites that aims to make users way more anonymous as they can. This is done by routing the communications via multiple servers along with encrypting it at every step. Why Was The Dark Web Created? This is what you might want to ask. The dark web was initially created by the U.S. Naval Research Lab scientists who felt the need for a hidden web service that promotes anonymity and security. The open internet is exceptionally prone to surveillance and does not at any cost offer any of the two. Thus, a particular software or network was created to access the dark web called the Tor Browser or the Tor Network. Tor browser, derived from “The Onion Router” is so made to access the onion links. Why .onion URLs? The search engines index the regular clear web websites, and these websites come in a myriad of extensions such as .com, .org etc. Some are even country-specific such as .au (Australia), .fr (France) and more. On the contrary, the dark web links or the dark web websites come in a single extension that is .onion and is never indexed. This reduces unnecessary surveillance and unwanted user attacks. What Goes On The Dark Web? The dark web or the darknet, yet a small portion of the vast internet, is involved in some of the other illegal activities due to the support of anonymity, security and lack of surveillance. The most common trade that goes on the dark web are drugs, guns, weapons, hack materials, stolen credentials, child pornography (CP) and certain services like red rooms and hitman-for-hire. The services are often termed scam or fraud owing to the fact that their existence is still controversial and that they are widely talked about on the various darknet forums. Speaking of drug sales, there are several dark web markets on the Tor network. They keep coming and vanishing as some get into the hands of the law enforcement officials disguised as a darknet vendor or dark web buyers. The other reason behind this is the “exit scams”, where the vendors or the darknet market owners tend to flee with the buyers’ money. Some of such defunct well-known marketplaces are Silk Road, AlphaBay, Empire Market and Berlusconi Market. On the contrary, the dark web is used for several legal purposes as well. You can find many essential websites to gather knowledge, buy rare books, get hands-on the uncensored libraries, play games, listen to music and even download them. How Safe Is The Dark Web? Well, it depends on how you use the dark web and deep web and what you use it for. If you happen to access the dark web or the deep web for something that is just basic, like listening to the radio or playing chess, then it is not illegal. When you involve yourself into trading of drugs, human trafficking and other related stuff, you are actually getting offensive. For the fact that the dark web promotes anonymity and is uncensored, there is a considerable probability of “not being safe” there. But no worries! There are some crucial tips and tricks that will get you covered (Note: you will not be cent per cent protected but ensure that you are covered to the maximum). The first and foremost is the usage of a reliable and premium VPN that will mask your location and IP address. Next, always use the Tor browser to surf the deep web sites and onion directory. Additionally, with a black tape mask the camera of your device and turn off the speakers. If you have any other application running in the background, make sure to close it before starting off. Install a good anti-malware or antivirus software to protect your data. Also, check if your device is connected to external devices. If so, remove it. This brings us to the end of the article, where we have tried to put in all the necessary information about the dark web. The darknet forums are extensively used by the cyber threat actors to locate and participate in the so-called “botnet opportunities”. The acquisition of the botnets by them is basically for either of the two reasons - investments in crypto mining or for hacking purposes. The botnet based cyber-attacks have taken a steep since a couple of years as the dark web directories are providing the best platform for smooth commerce of botnets.
What are Botnets? Botnets are the internet’s workhorses. They can be termed as the connected computers that are performing a number of repetitive tasks in the bid to keep the websites working. Most often, they are used in relation to the Internet Relay Chat. These botnets are entirely legal while there are a different group of botnets that perform illegally. Referring to the illicit botnets, they can be treated as malware. Once the owner of these botnets takes full control of your system, they usually perform nefarious activities. This, in the long run, would turn out to be maleficient for your system and in the investments that went behind it. Some of the common tasks performed by these botnets are:
To put it simply, botnets hijack your computer to perform mundane tasks in a faster and better way. Why is the Botnet Commerce Flourishing in the Dark Net Links? The heavy demand for the planned DDoS attacks to trap people is what aiding the Botnet commerce to grow even in a better way. Now you may ask the reason behind the massive demand. Well, some of the cyber attacks consume monumental botnets and also require a longer preparation duration having intensive efforts on the part of the cyber attackers. For instance, to generate a successful DDoS attack, that too against a large organization’s DNS server, the hacker would require a lump sum amount of botnets. These botnets would repeatedly send queries unless the server crashes down. The cyber attacker, on the other hand, can purchase some of the botnets in bulk from any darknet forum. This would make the procedure easier to some extent. With more and more awareness of the vulnerability devices of the IoT era, the cyber threat actors would likely find the use of the botnets even more intriguing. On searching for the right opportunities on the Tor .onion urls directories, these cyber threat actors could find willing partners for their botnet-based cyber attacks and on-demand sale for the botnets. Thus, the dark web links or the darknet markets are tremendously used for the purchase and sale of the botnets. |