Dark Web History

The dark web is a part of the internet that requires specific encryption to access. It’s been linked to illicit activities such as drug trafficking and the sale of illegal porn, hacked passwords, and weapons.

It can also be a tool for whistleblowers and those living under oppressive regimes. It delivers privacy and anonymity for those wary of how their data is tracked and used by governments and corporations.
Origins

The dark web is home to an anything-goes commercial underworld, a place where gangsters sell guns and drugs, terrorists coordinate attacks, and assassins offer contract killings. It is also where people trade stolen information, such as passwords for e-mail accounts or credit cards, or illegal pornography, including child pornography. In recent years, the rise of cryptographic currencies such as Bitcoin has led to an explosion in the trading of these illegal services on the dark web.

The roots of the dark web go back to the 1960s with the creation of ARPANET, the forerunner to the Internet. The network was built on a principle of anonymity and used a method of communication called onion routing to hide the identity of its users.

While the dark web is often associated with nefarious activities, it has also been used for legitimate purposes. It has allowed journalists and people living in countries with Internet censorship to remain anonymous while communicating online and it has served as an outlet for whistle-blowers, such as Edward Snowden. It has also helped activists fighting oppressive regimes, and it provides a platform for the free exchange of ideas and opinions.

The dark web uses a technology called Tor, an anonymous network that uses a series of encrypted servers to mask the identity of its users. While this technology is effective, it has its drawbacks. One major problem is that the US government controls many of the entrance and exit points of the Tor network, which means that it is possible for them to trace a user’s activity. Despite these limitations, the dark web remains a valuable resource for those who want to remain anonymous on the Internet.
Early days

The dark web is a place where illegal trade happens. It is a hidden underbelly of the Internet that can be accessed using software/browsers that allow users to stay anonymous. It is a place where hackers offer their hacking services and where criminals sell their stolen goods. In addition to this, it is a hub where drugs are traded and child pornography is sold. The dark web has been around for a while and it is constantly evolving. It has been shaped by cyber-crimes, the takedown of famous marketplaces and by increasing concern over online privacy.

The earliest form of the dark web came into existence in the early 2000’s. That’s when Freenet, a peer-to-peer network that offered anonymity to its users, was launched and The Onion Router (Tor) was developed by the U.S government’s Naval Research Laboratory. Tor was designed to allow intelligence agencies to use the Internet without being identified. The original hidden wiki
It was released for the public in 2004 and is still maintained today through a non-profit organization known as The Tor Project.

While Tor and other dark web software/browsers were created to keep people safe, their anonymity was quickly exploited by those looking for ways to engage in illegal activities. The popularity of the dark web was further fueled by the creation of the first digital black market, Silk Road, in 2011. This marketplace allowed its users to purchase drugs, hacked passwords and illegal data, among other things, with relative ease. The Silk Road was shut down by law enforcement in 2013 and its founder, Ross Ulbricht, was arrested.

Since then, many other digital black markets have appeared. The underlying technology behind these markets is similar to that of the dark web. The difference is that these sites have a lot more illegal content and are much easier to navigate for those with the right software/browser.
Early markets

The first dark web marketplace was the infamous Silk Road, launched in 2011. It used anonymity technology and Bitcoin software to make it easy for anyone to sell or buy drugs, weapons, or even people. It was so popular that the FBI was forced to conduct a major sting operation to shut it down.

The early dark web also offered the promise of privacy for people living under restrictive regimes. This was a key driver of the development of the onion router (Tor), which offers anonymity on the Internet. The software is free to use and open source, but the core concept was originally developed by the U.S. government at the Naval Research Laboratory to enable members of the intelligence community to communicate online without risk of identification.

As the popularity of the dark web grew, more illicit activities started to appear. For example, hackers could trade stolen credit card and social security numbers. It also became a platform for criminals to buy and sell weapons, drug dealers to share illegal pornography, and pedophiles to exchange exploitative images of children.

While the rise of the dark web gave new momentum to these activities, it also made law enforcement more determined to bust these hidden markets. While Tor can help keep users anonymous, when a market becomes large enough, law enforcement is going to find ways to infiltrate it.

A number of different dark web markets have come and gone over the years, and many were scammed or shut down by authorities. The Evolution Marketplace was a prominent example of this, and it was seized in 2015 after an elaborate exit scam that left customers with no access to their funds.
Later days

The dark web is a shadowy commercial underworld where anything goes, from illegal drugs to stolen data. It is home to cyber black markets where information like credit card and social security numbers are offered for sale, as well as weapons and bomb-making kits. It is also a hub for criminal hackers who sell hacked passwords and private messages — sometimes even en masse. For instance, in March 2012, Russian hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin offered the passwords of 117 million LinkedIn accounts for sale on a dark web marketplace.

In recent years, dark market activity has intensified. In particular, a handful of prominent dark web marketplaces emerged that made it possible to buy and sell illegal drugs, weapons, fake IDs, forged documents, and other contraband online. One of these was Silk Road, an online marketplace that was a popular destination for drug dealers and other criminals until it was shut down in 2013 by law enforcement officials.

One of the keys to the success of these dark marketplaces was that they were able to conduct transactions without being traced by law enforcement. While various forms of encrypted currency had been in development since the 1990’s, none really took off until 2009 when a cryptographic token called Bitcoin was created. This token was a breakthrough in digital currency because it enabled users to conduct transactions anonymously and untraceably.

While the dark web seems like an invention of the new millennium, its roots stretch back much further. The concept of an anonymous Internet network dates all the way back to the 1960s with the creation of ARPANET, the forerunner of the modern World Wide Web. The idea behind it was to allow computers connected to a central hub to communicate with each other over long distances, without the need for a physical connection between the devices involved. The dark web uses a similar technique of onion routing to protect its users from monitoring and tracking. The Tor project and other networks using this technology have become very popular among computer enthusiasts, privacy advocates, journalists, dissidents under repressive governments, and others who require strict confidentiality.
Conclusions

The internet is a global community of people with the freedom to exchange information and communicate freely, but it also hosts a shadowy underworld where illegal contraband thrives. It’s a place where opioids and other drugs are traded, bomb parts and weapons can be bought, and even assassins bid on contracts for murder. It’s a space where anything goes and law enforcement has struggled to keep up.

Illegal dark web transactions are fueled by the anonymizing technology of Tor and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The first dark web marketplace was Silk Road, founded in 2011 by Ross Ulbricht, which allowed users to conduct transactions without the need for credit cards or other identifying information. The site was eventually shut down by the FBI, but imitators soon followed.

As long as demand for anonymity remains high, the dark web will continue to exist. While the majority of its activity is criminal, it also provides a platform for whistle-blowers to release sensitive information and enables terrorist groups to recruit members and fund operations (Denic 2017; Weimann 2016a).

Addressing these crimes requires better training of officers and investigators to spot relevant dark web evidence and improve information-sharing between agencies, both domestically and internationally. It also calls for the development of new structures for cooperation, such as the formation of a task force of 19 law enforcement agencies to identify the most dangerous dark web sites and share the type of information needed for enforcement. This collaboration helped police shut down many illicit marketplaces, including Wall Street Market and Valhalla, which were the second and third largest illicit drug markets respectively. It also led to the arrest of Ulbricht and the shut down of his successor site, Silk Road 2.0.