TOR – the Dark Side of the Internet Essay Example

transmitting sensitive information to social sites (What is a Tor Relay? | Tor Challenge, 2016).

Bitcoin

Developed by an anonymous group of engineers, Bitcoin is a digital currency that functions as an online protocol. It enables individuals to utilize this form of currency and has facilitated over 62.5 million transactions worldwide since its introduction in 2009 (Bohme, Christin, Edelman, & Moore, 2015).

In 2005, the market exchange had a daily trading volume of over 200,000 bitcoins (equivalent to $50 million). The exact circulation and value of bitcoins are unknown due to its anonymity. However, it is estimated that there are approximately 14 million bitcoins with a total value of about $3.5 billion. What makes bitcoin unique is its complex operation, which relies on a distributed transaction log instead of centralized storage. This mechanism prevents power concentration, enables honest rewards, and allows for irreversible transactions.

Silk Road

Silk Road operates as the largest black market on the dark web using TOR services for illegal drug transactions.

The establishment of Silk Road in February 2011 garnered attention from Tor users and the general public, leading to concerns about security. This was primarily due to its association with hiring assassins, which posed a threat to society's safety. In October 2013, the FBI successfully took down the website and convicted Ross William Ulbricht, who is believed to be its creator. At the time of its shutdown, Ulbricht had amassed approximately $1.2 billion through Silk Road (What is a Tor Relay? | Tor Challenge, 2016). Soon after its closure, former administrators managed Silk Road 2.0 which emerged but was ultimately seized and closed in late 2014.

Just two hours after the shutdown of Silk Road 2.0, Silk

Road 3.0 emerged, while the FBI continues its active pursuit of other Silk Road websites.

Web Based Hidden Services

Web-based hidden services rely on TOR technology and operate using .onion addresses, which are unique to the TOR network and rarely found on the surface web (Constantin, 2016). The use of these hidden services allows both users and servers to remain anonymous, attracting a significant number of individuals seeking to evade internet surveillance. This anonymity complicates law enforcement's ability to track online activities back to their origin or destination.

TOR hidden services function on nodes that have the special Hidden Service Directory (HSDir) flag, which they use to advertise their services on the TOR network for easy identification by users (Constantin, 2016). These hidden services choose six specific hidden service directory nodes to serve as rendezvous points, chosen from a pool of 4000 nodes based on a formula that varies with the date.

The Hidden Wiki

The term "hidden wiki" refers to different TOR hidden services.

They allow users to anonymously edit links after registering. These hidden links use the onion pseudo top-level domain and can only be accessed through TOR. The main page contains numerous links that claim to provide black-market services, including cyberattacks, money laundering, drug sales, adult content, contract killing, and child pornography. The hidden links always appear on the Tor main page.

Sandbox

A sandbox is an environment that provides suitable settings for testing programs typically obtained from untrusted sources. These programs are usually designed for malicious purposes.

The sandbox offers a safe space for running and examining programs to detect any malicious content or malware. If any element of the program is

identified as malware, the system automatically starts a rollback process. This safeguarding layer helps prevent destructive actions caused by harmful programs. Presently, popular browsers such as Google Chrome and the newest version of Microsoft Office suite (2013) employ sandbox technology.

Safeguarding Internet Privacy

While exploring the internet and navigating across websites, advanced technology can monitor and collect personal details about individuals. Web browsers utilize cookies to store files on users' computers, potentially exposing their private information.

Flash cookies, also referred to as supercookies, are a technique for collecting data from internet users. These cookies are more challenging to delete and can even elude adware removal or anti-spyware programs. As a result, the utilization of these technologies violates the privacy of internet users.

References

1. Bohme, R., Christin, N., Edelman, B., ; Moore, T. (2015). Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance †.
   Journal Of Economic Perspectives,
   29(2), 213-238. http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/jep.29.2.213
2. Sanya, Hainan ; Sheng (2015).
   Industrial Engineering, Machine Design and Automation (IEMDA 2014) et Computer Science and Application (CCSA 2014): Proceedings of the 2014 Congress on IEMDA 2014 et proceedings of the 2nd Congress on CCSA 2014 : Sanya, Hainan China ,12-14 Dec .(Dec.).
   Singapore: World Scientific.
3. Constantin,L.

(2016). Tor connections to hidden services could be easy to de-anonymize. PCWorld. Retrieved 9 August 2016, from http://www.pcworld.com/article/2928752/tor-connections-to-hidden-services-could-be-easy-to-deanonymize.html.

The article titled "Tor connections to hidden services could be easy to de-anonymize" published in PCWorld discusses the potential ease with which Tor connections to hidden services can

be de-anonymized (PCWorld, 2016). The author of the article is MacLeod, K. (2016) and it was retrieved on August 9th, 2016 from the following URL: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2928752/tor-connections-to-hidden-services-could-be-easy-to-deanonymize.html.

The Dark Side of the Web. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUP0tx7Ib2w

The text below, including the and their contents, isand unified:

(2016). Eff.org. Retrieved 9 August 2016, from https://www.eff.org/torchallenge/what-is-tor.html