The Dark Net

     The internet is a vast space in which different people can interact together. It is full of so much content that people often don’t think about what they don’t have direct access to. What they don’t have access to are discrete networks protected by protocol, encryption, or some set of algorithms that can only be accessed by individuals with access to a program or algorithm to make it accessible. This is similar to standard encryption in that only those entrusted with the key can access different sites. However, this is where the similarities stop. When one accesses a dark net server, it is seldom as simple as entering some secret password. Secondly, when accessing the dark net, one’s IP address is obscured so that when a user accesses their intended destination, (another website protected by the Dark Net) their identity is masked and any way to trace them is seemingly impossible. Furthermore, since these websites are masked by the dark net, they too will go undetected, so standard searches won’t pick up on them. This level of obscurity makes it easy to engage in illegal activity such as buying anything from drugs to weapons to even requesting the services of willing criminals. Of course, not all activity through the dark net is illegal. People can acquire regularly obtainable merchandise from sites on a dark net, they are just doing so with the extra privacy a dark net can provide. Ironically, though not all that difficult to believe is the fact that government agencies use these to keep their activity quiet. Additionally, in 2014 Carnegie Mellon and the FBI have discovered a way to unmask certain dark net users, a topic generating a lot of buzz in the recent news over privacy and security issues.