In this part of the internet special web browsers and search engines are required for access. These websites often require encryption.
For years the dark net has been associated with the sale of drugs, guns, and porn. And it’s also a big marketplace for stolen bank information, hacked passwords, usernames, Social Security numbers. Hackers can also purchase ransomware code and ransomware.
Many of these types of transactions are bought and paid for with cryptocurrency. And the idea is to make them virtually untraceable.
The National Institute of Justice recently referred to the dark web as “a hub of criminal commerce, a fully functional marketplace where hidden customers can buy from hidden sellers with relative confidence.”
It “enables anonymous, highly secure communication channels to shield classified government activity and protect reform agents such as human rights activists and journalists opposed by oppressive foreign regimes,” the NIJ has reported.
Increasingly tech-savvy law enforcement all over the world has been on a mission. In the last 2 years a lot of Dark Web sites have been shut down. DarkMarket, Wall Street Market, Empire Market, Alphabay, and The Silk Road were all shuttered. And the illegal site owners were owners hunted down and prosecuted.
