The Hidden Underground part of the Internet

There is a part of the internet that the majority of internet users don't know about and that is the deep web; it is the largest part of the World Wide Web. You may be asking yourself "Well, how come I never heard of it if it is the largest part of the internet? “ The answer is quite simple. The average internet user surfs only what is called the surface web. The surface web consists of your daily internet activities such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc.

                                                                                                                                   

According to this picture http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/1/23608000/ngbbs4eff588f1ef5a.jpg, what your average internet users search categorizes them into an innocent internet user. They don't know the full potential of the internet. As you go further down the internet levels, you gain more knowledge of the internet. Personally, I don't what level two is, but I have experience on level 3 and 4. I do agree with the image that level 3 is for the advance internet user such that you can download you movies, TV shows, music, games, pornography, and other things. There is not that many people who know to do it or if they do then it's in bad quality. Levels 1-3 from that picture are all found on the surface web. Level 4 and 5 can only be accessed through the deep web, and you better use a proxy or say hello to the FBI.

No, the deep web isn't bad. In general, the majority of the deep web holds valuable information. A report in 2001, which is the best to date, estimates 54% of the websites in the deep web are databases, the next batch are private pages by companies that charge a fee to see them, 13% of pages lie hidden because they are only found on an Intranet, then there's the darkest part of the deep web, Tor.

The Tor browser was made by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory as a method for communicating online anonymously. It was later released as the Onion Routing project in 2002. Though some use it for private communication like politics or for nefarious purposes like drugs, weapons, assassinations, etc.

Tor contains a collection of secret websites that end in .onion. They can only be accessed by special software and remember what I said about level 4 of the picture well this is it. Tor has a lot of illegal content and all of it is located in Onionland. Onionland contains the hidden services of the Tor browser. The most known service and the starting point of Onionland is the infamous Hidden Wiki. There you can go and explore the hidden services. The thing about the hidden services is that you can only access them with the full URL. Of course you won't be able to remember that so the Hidden Wiki took it upon itself to provide the links on its page. From there you can explore what Tor has to offer, but be cautious because there are lots of sites that you don't want to be on.

The sites that are on the Hidden Wiki are different, and that is the best I can describe them. The internet version of the black market is there, and the best part for the people who get involve with these activities is that the browser is anonymous. It is hard to track who gets in and out because the browser uses a proxy. Furthermore, the currency that they use, Bitcoin, is almost untraceable. It is hard to know who the original buyer was using an outside source, but there is a flaw. Bitcoins can be tracked only inside Tor. There is a program in there that I read about on Tor that makes this possible.

Something that I found while on the Hidden Wiki is the Amazon of the drug trade. The site, Silkroad 2.0, is just that. The drugs are categorized from prescription, cannabis, ecstasy, and much more. You can also buy other stolen goods on there as well. The site is well organized and even has customer reviews as well as comments. One such comment was "The level of customer care you go to often makes me forget that this is an illegal drug market". Here is an image of what the website looked like before they had to make the 2.0 version http://images.smh.com.au/2013/10/23/4852634/HP-Greenguide-aw-20131023100605822261-620x349.jpg

Another thing that I found was that you can even put a hit on someone you want dead. They’re assassins out there that are willing to put their skills to the test, but for a fee. They are on the Hidden Wiki as well, and I assumed some of them to be not real, yet there were other sites that were quite convincing. To know that you can end the life of a fellow human being for thousands of dollars is frightening or we are only worth thousands of dollars. The one thing that all the "Hitmen" had in common is that they don't do top ten politicians. Here is a picture of one hitman’s description http://www.sickchirpse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Deep-Web-Hitman-for-hire.png

There are more sites that are related to the black market. Another one is where you can buy your unregistered guns ranging from your standard pistol to your military grade assault rifle, but after looking at those sites I stumbled and found the dark twisted part of Tor. I landed on a child pornography wiki. I was at first scared of finding pictures, but I was relieved to only find information about it. I investigated further and found that in the wiki they listed famous child porn stars with their full name and age. I was mortified after seeing this. To think that they would have this kind of information on there, but then again it is Tor. I almost decided to turn back, but I kept on going. I found pedophile chats, forums, and blogs. The thing that surprised me the most about this was in how "normal" it appeared to them. There were no comments saying "I hope you die" or "Burn in hell", but positive reinforcement. In my opinion, I do hope those people die a slow painful death for being pedophiles and sharing tactics, tips and secrets with each other. There is some content that I read about on there that I will try to forget. Don't go near these sites while on Tor. Believe me I learned the hard way.

There was a certain thing I was trying to look up while on Tor and that is the organ business. I couldn't find the market for it, but I did find the prices for what a lung and kidney go for in various countries around the world. Another thing that I tried to find was human trafficking because of a blog post I found, while searching the surface web for information. This really got me worried https://img.4plebs.org/boards/x/image/1365/48/1365487520904.jpg I tried to find anything related to this on the deep web, but I couldn't. It wasn't until searching again through the surface web that I found that the site where this originated from was taken down. I was disappointed that the site was taken down because I wanted to look more into it. Although I don't condone those actions, I was interested a bit. I did find the post to be revolting and inhumane. Why would someone want to do that to an innocent little girl? Why? It is just so sick and twisted.

Hacking is also a part of Tor and there are forums and blogs about it. The information from these ranges from inexperienced to expert level in hacking. I learn while searching through these how to create a virus but a redundant virus. It can be stopped but deleting the file and it was to be manually created. The hackers in don't mess around either. I read some stories that people have hacked into the person's computer/laptop while on the hacking forum. That is the reason I didn't stay that long on there.

Tor isn't all about illegal content; there are also blogs and forums from the Middle East because of a lack of free speech. I couldn't find that many forums or blogs about the oppressed, and yet this was the only silver lining to be found in Tor. It is as small and thin as a single strand of hair.

In all, the deep web isn't that bad, but Tor is. The majority of Tor is quite bad and filled with malicious and illegal activity. There are some good things about Tor with helping oppressed people share their ideas without their government knowing and the fear of being killed by them, but there is a ton of drugs, hacking, scamming, and the rest of what the black market has to offer. This was a long research endeavor for I spent my entire weekend doing this. I got to say that it was a weekend well spent, and I learned so much. If you plan to visit Tor or the deep web all I have to say to you is be careful. There are places in Tor that you don't want to visit.

 Resources: 

How I bought drugs from 'dark net' – it's just like Amazon run by cartels - http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/06/dark-net-drugs

Darknet: Touring the Hidden Internet's Illegal Markets - http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/darknet-touring-the-hidden-internets-illegal-markets

Meet Darknet, the hidden, anonymous underbelly of the searchable Web - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2046227/meet-darknet-the-hidden-anonymous-underbelly-of-the-searchable-web.html

The disturbing world of the Deep Web, where contract killers and drug dealers ply their trade on the internet - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2454735/The-disturbing-world-Deep-Web-contract-killers-drug-dealers-ply-trade-internet.html

The Deep Web you don't know about - http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/10/technology/deep-web/index.html