Digital Forensics and the Deep Dark Web
Into the Deep Dark Web – Digital Forensics can find the hidden crime
The internet makes everything so much easier. Shopping, business, connecting with friends and entertainment are all brought to us compliments of the world wide web.
What started out as ARPANET in the early days of 1983 has grown exponentially to a virtual system moving bits of information among over three billion users worldwide.
As there are never-ending applications for good with the internet, there is also a never-ending list of digital crime available. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the dark web.
Most people don’t know about the dark web and for good reason. There is a lot of bad that goes on there. But a little information can help dispel any myths and protect internet users from future dark web computer crime.
The internet is actually made up of layers:
* The surface web: Everything users do online; search engines, shopping, social media, etc.
* The Deep Web (or the invisible web): all non-search engine indexed information. Data like emails, banking websites and other pages inaccessible to search engine crawlers.
* The Dark Web: The dark underbelly of the internet, inaccessible to mainstream web browsers, this is a popular destination for all things that need to remain unseen or unreported.
So, if the dark web isn’t easy to access, why is it so popular among criminals? The short answer, anonymity. The dark web allows users to keep their identity hidden while dealing in illegal goods and services, setting up arrangements and communicating. Thus, the appeal to criminal world.
For all the illicit activity on the dark web, there is a type of silver lining. Political activists, journalists and people from countries that restrict information and internet activity use the dark web to access social media or news sites. The dark web becomes their digital life-line to get information or inform the rest of the world about the events in their countries.
For most of us, the dark web is simply a scary bedtime story that has little to do with our daily lives. The reality is, it’s a breeding ground for criminal activity.
With the ever-expanding world of cyber bad guys comes the need for computer forensic services that can protect those who have been affected by criminal activity disguised on the dark web.