Dark Web: Exploring the Impact of De-Anonymizing - Essay Sample

Introduction

The dark web is a ground for criminal activities that involve the use of technology. The 'dark' as known is a site that is not indexed by web browsers like Google. This means that it is difficult for ordinary people and the law enforcers to discover such websites. Such platforms create an advantage that allows people to explore ideas and speak freely, without interferences from the government (Khonji & Iraqi 117). The essay will, therefore, analyze why De-Anonymizing will invade on the privacy of users and why it is the best option.

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The Darknet is mostly found in the deep web because they are undiscoverable by the conventional search engines. The difference is that such websites are composed of sites and people that choose to be anonymous except for the ones using Tor browser, which is also next to impossible to discover them. The federal government has tried to De-Anonymize the darknet activities to arrest criminals (Khonji & Iraqi 125).

To understand the operations of the dark web, it is essential to know 'The Union Router' (Tor), a website developed by the government of America to hide the identity of the user (Koch 71). The idea behind this creation was to give way to informants to get in contact while using a safe website. However, Tor was later used by many in the dark activities. This means that unless the user makes a mistake, it is difficult for the government to discover them. The only way they could get them is by identifying criminal activities that come from malicious code downloads. This is where the government manages to get the information sent by the computer.

People who use regular browsers such as Firefox are easily identified through the IP addressed because of the numeral codes sent by the device. However, Tor allows the users to surf through Silk Road and Amazon. This means on Darknet, the location of both users and developers remain hidden. In other words, the dark world is a haven for illegal activities such as selling and buying of drugs, pornography and private information like health records, passwords and social security numbers (Koch 86).

Users that are not keen with privacy issues fall victims of the dark web under the Silk Road website, which is an illegal drug marketplace that was shut down by the FBI in 2013 (Andersen 249). The U.S government, in this case, is now concerned with the hackers that take advantage of the large corporation to breach data as well as the illegalities that make places such as dealings in wartime weapons and firearms, and child pornography. When Silk Road was stopped, the deep end continued. Shady technology continues to grow by creating sites that will revive the dark web to threaten the economy and privacy of people.

For the past few years, the government has discovered massive caches of account data in the dark web market such as LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter (Andersen 257). Sometimes, the accounts were noticed to come from the private breaches of the mentioned organizations. Due to this, the data thieves managed to steal data directly from the users. The information of their accounts was also taken and later sold to the dark market. For instance, if someone needed the Netflix password, all they needed to do is to pay a little cash to get access.

From 2014, the government began shutting down the bothering of the dark web. Ever since they started the 'operation onymous,' they stopped hundreds of domains and arrested several people from various countries (Andersen 259). However, since the reports concerning new hacks were released, it showed that the problem was not finished. This means that when the dark web is allowed to thrive, it causes significant issues to any user of the internet.

Therefore every time the hacker is known, users get scared of their privacy in the websites. This means that inline shoppers must share their data via the sites and with the trending story of the dark web, then the economy will be affected because of hacking (Chen 95). The question of whether the government's move on shutting down the dark internet will change the anonymity and privacy of people is that it will affect people but in a good way.

The debate of shutting the dark web simply means making the internet feasible but also necessary for appropriate responses. An excellent example is the predicament of national security officials and law enforcement. It is known that the law enforcers believe that the dark web should not be stopped because they can also use it to trap the criminals (Chen 99). The national security agents, on the other hand, feel they can use the site to map and monitor the terrorist networks.

Even though the move is effective, a few people still feel that it should not take place. For instance, in the Washington States, there was a case of child pornography about a middle school teacher, but the FBI denied the fact that the activity took place on the dark webs (Chen 102). In short, it is better to violate the privacy of people than to catch them on the dark web violating the law. The government, in this case, should be aggressive in closing the sites due to illegal activities.

As seen, forcing terrorists, paedophiles and fraudsters to stop using such sites have only led to the creation of new forums and websites to enable them to commit the crime. The problem here is not denying users the ability to do their private businesses, but rather stopping hackers from selling private data (Chen 104). The law enforcers, in this case, should also commit to combat the illegal activities instead of undermining online commerce.

If the issue is left unaddressed, then all customer's credit and identities will create a channel of buying and selling illegal services and goods online. New solutions are needed for new challenges. The current data breach laws are unable to secure customers from being hacked through the dark web (Khonji & Iraqi 131). Most state data laws, for instance, determine if the customer will be harmed. Yet the organizations are unable to predict if their businesses will be damaged.

Conclusion

Given these sophistications, the government should stop the dark web instead of risking the economy of the country. The reason behind this is that hackers are very patient when hacking or using stolen information. Due to this, most companies cannot predict whether data taken from their clients will be used to perpetrate fraud against other organizations or if they will access their private accounts. Also, credit monitoring a method offered by companies has a shorter term. Since hackers are patient, they can strike one, and this will end up harming millions of clients, including the legitimate businesses that use the online platforms.

Works Cited

Andersen, Henrik. "The New Maritime Silk Road and WTO Law." The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Sept. 2019, pp. 243-262., DOI:10.4324/9780429058585-15.

Chen, Hsinchun. "Dark Network Analysis." Dark Web Integrated Series in Information Systems, July 2011, pp. 91-103., DOI:10.1007/978-1-4614-1557-2_6.

Khonji, Mahmoud, and Youssef Iraqi. "De-Anonymizing Authors of Electronic Texts: A Survey on Electronic Text Stylometry." Vol. 2, no. 1, 2017, pp. 114-138., DOI:10.20944/preprints201708.0003.v1.

Koch, Robert. "Hidden in the Shadow: The Dark Web - A Growing Risk for Military Operations?" 2019 11th International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon), vol. 2, no. 1, 2019, pp. 68-98., DOI:10.23919/cycon.2019.8756708.