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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Darknets: Murky recesses of the hidden web

    Darknets: Murky recesses of the hidden web

    By James Rogers
    Published October 24, 2014 FoxNews.com

    (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files)


    The Brazilian police investigation that cracked a high-tech child porn ring earlier this month has shone a spotlight on the darker recesses of the web, an area which still poses massive technology challenges to law enforcement.

    The ring was buried deep inside a “darknet” – private networks built from connections between trusted peers using unconventional protocols.


    Darknets are just one part of what is known as deep web – a vast network which is not indexed by search engines such as Google and Bing. While most of the deep web is not mired in criminality - resources such as academic databases and libraries are said to make up much of its content - darknets typically run on the fortress-like Tor network.


    Tor, which stands for ‘The onion router,’ started out as a military project, but now functions largely as a highly clandestine civilian network.


    “When you refer to the deep web that is used by criminals, it’s the web that uses the encrypted Tor network,” Matthew Green, assistant research professor in the department of computer science at Johns Hopkins University, told FoxNews.com. “Every connection that you make with Tor is not only encrypted, but it’s routed via three ‘hops’ around the world.”


    “It’s like a cloud that anonymizes your traffic,” added Pierluigi Paganini, author of the book “The Deep Dark Web” and founder of the Security Affairs blog. “The traffic is bounced among randomly proxy computers maintained by volunteers worldwide, before sending it on to final destination.”


    Users connect to the network by downloading a free Tor web browser, which can then be used to access myriad 'hidden' sites. "There are specific repositories that are lists of what is available," said Paganini. "You copy the addresses into the Tor web browser and then access the pages."


    The Tor Metrics web site says that the network has just over 2.25 million users.


    Paganini explained that people communicating via Tor include the likes of whistleblowers and journalists. Activists and dissidents are also said to use the network, particularly in countries with repressive regimes. With Tor offering extremely high levels of anonymity, however, criminals have been quick to exploit it.


    “Today, for a cybercriminal, it’s quite easy,” Paganini said, explaining that crooks can use Tor-based black markets for drugs, weapons, underage sex, and hacking services. Payments, he added, can be made using virtual currency, such as Bitcoin.


    The best-known Tor-based black market was the notorious Silk Road, an underground marketplace for the likes of narcotics and weapons. The site, which generated an estimated $1.2 billion between 2011 and 2013, was seized by U.S. authorities last year.


    According to a court filing, the FBI exploited a software misconfiguration on the site’s login page, which accidentally revealed the location of its server.


    “[Silk Road] got busted because they made mistakes,” said Green. “They made some mistakes in the way that they set up the server – that got them caught.”


    While a technical error helped investigators bring down Silk Road, relatively little is known about law enforcement’s tactics for infiltrating Tor-based darknets. The FBI, however, reportedly used a mass malware attack to target Tor servers as part a major child pornography investigation last year.


    The FBI has not yet responded to a request for comment on this story from FoxNews.com.


    Nonetheless, Tor clearly remains a headache for the authorities. Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden purportedly describe the intelligence agency’s ongoing struggle with the clandestine network.


    Entitled ‘Tor Stinks,’ the June 2012 presentation, which was published in The Guardian last year, states that “we will never be able to de-anonymize all Tor users all the time.” The document adds, however, that “with manual analysis” the agency can de-anonymize a very small fraction of Tor users.


    According to the document, the NSA has access to very few Tor “nodes” - computers which relay traffic across the Tor network. The document claims that the NSA’s U.K. counterpart GCHQ runs Tor nodes under a project code-named ‘Newton’s Cradle.’


    Potential tactics for tackling Tor are also discussed, such as setting up a large number of slow nodes to degrade the network’s stability and using cookies to identify Tor users. Some cookies may “survive” Tor use, depending on how “targets” are using the network, according to the presentation.


    In a statement emailed to FoxNews.com, the NSA said that it collects "only those communications that it is authorized by law to collect for valid foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes," noting that it has "unmatched technical capabilities" to accomplish its mission.


    "As such, it should hardly be surprising that our intelligence agencies seek ways to counteract targets’ use of technologies to hide their communications," it added. "Throughout history, nations have used various methods to protect their secrets, and today terrorists, cybercriminals, human traffickers and others use technology to hide their activities. Our intelligence community would not be doing its job if we did not try to counter that."


    GCHQ declined to comment on this story, but noted, in an emailed statement, that all of its work "is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework."


    Paganini told FoxNews.com that law enforcement and intelligence agencies across the globe are working hard to peel away the anonymity of Tor users. Confronted with the challenge of breaking the network’s encryption or attacking flaws in its infrastructure, attackers are concentrating their efforts on the latter option, according to the security expert.


    Still, though, much of Tor remain clouded in secrecy.


    Even the number of sites running on the network is a mystery, although Green estimates that it may be a relatively modest number. “The number of sites is not enormous,” he said. “It’s probably in the hundreds, I would guess.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/10/...cmp=latestnews

    Last edited by JohnDoe2; 10-24-2014 at 08:56 PM.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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      1. Messages are repeatedly encrypted and then sent through several network nodes called onion routers. Like someone peeling an onion, each onion router removes a layer of encryption to uncover routing instructions, and sends the message to the next router where this is repeated.
      2. Onion routing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

        en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_routingWikipedia


      Feedback

    1. Onion routing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_routing

      Wikipedia

      Messages are repeatedly encrypted and then sent through several network nodes called onion routers. Like someone peeling an onion, each onion router removes a layer of encryption to uncover routing instructions, and sends the message to the next router where this is repeated.Onions - ‎See also - ‎Further reading - ‎References
    2. Tor (anonymity network) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)
      Wikipedia

      Tor (previously an acronym for The Onion Router) is free software for enabling online anonymity and resisting censorship. It is designed to make it possible for users to surf the Internet anonymously, so their activities and location cannot be discovered by government agencies, corporations, or anyone else.
    3. Onion Routing

      www.onion-router.net/

      This website comprises the onion-router.net site formerly hosted at the Center for High Assurance Computer Systems of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
    4. Go Online without Getting Snooped: Tor (The Onion Router)

      www.instructables.com/.../Go-Online-without-Getting-Snoo...

      Instructables

      In this Instructable, I'll tell you about something called Tor (The Onion Router.) I'll tell you how it works, and then offer some simple instructions on how to get your ...
    5. Tor Project: Anonymity Online

      https://www.torproject.org/

      Tor

      A free software implementation of second-generation onion routing, a system enabling its users to communicate anonymously on the Internet.
    6. Taking Stock Of Tor: Top 5 Tips For Using The Onion Router

      www.forbes.com/.../taking-stock-of-tor-top-5-tips-for-using-the-o...

      Forbes

      Oct 18, 2013 - The Silk Road and NSA spying may be old news, but The Onion Router (Tor) continues to generate interest among Internet users seeking ...
    7. Advanced Onion Router | SourceForge.net

      sourceforge.net › BrowseCryptography

      Rating: 5 - ‎Free - ‎Windows
      Apr 17, 2014 - Download Advanced Onion Router. A portable client and server for the Tor network.
    8. Center for a Stateless Society » Tor: The Onion Router

      c4ss.org/content/19091

      May 21, 2013 - Tor, formally an acronym for “The Onion Router“, is a distributed proxy network designed to provide anonymity on the web. Much like a VPN ...
    9. What Is Tor and Should I Use It? - Lifehacker

      lifehacker.com/what-is-tor-and-should-i-use-it-1527891029

      Lifehacker

      Feb 21, 2014 - Tor is short for The Onion Router (thus the logo) and was initially a worldwide network of servers developed with the U.S. Navy that enabled ...
    10. What is The Onion Router (Tor) - Definition from Techopedia

      www.techopedia.com/definition/4141/the-onion-router-tor

      The Onion Router Definition - The Onion Router (Tor) is an open-source software program that allows users to protect their privacy and security against a...
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  3. #3
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Tor Project: Anonymity Online

    https://www.torproject.org/

    Tor

    Tor prevents people from learning your location or browsing habits. Tor is for web browsers, instant messaging clients, and more. Tor is free and open source for ...Tor Browser - ‎Download - ‎Who uses Tor? - ‎Overview



    Tor Browser

    https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

    Tor


    The Tor Browser lets you use Tor on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux without ... It can run off a USB flash drive, comes with a pre-configured web browser to protect ...



    Download Tor Browser

    https://torproject.org/download

    Tor

    It is pre-configured to protect your privacy and anonymity on the web as long as you're browsing with the Tor Browser itself. Almost any other web browser ...
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