Hey all, new sub overlord here. I took some questions in the previous thread to get me started on this AMA. I am currently taking questions indefinitely.
I’ve published a couple of articles about the dark web you might be interested in:
As a someone who’s highly technical in his day job and interests, I’m in the privileged position of being able to debunk most ‘scary hacker’ type stories whilst still knowing about the actual risks that exist on the internet from an objective fashion.
Is there a definitive guide for a beginner to stay safe while on the Deep Web?
I mean, out of the tons of tutorials out there, is there one in particular you’d recommend to be above the rest in terms of safety?
The answer is no, there is not a definitive guide - yet.
Knowing how to stay safe on the internet in general is far more complex than I’d like it to be. Challenges include:
Personal privacy from advertisers, adversaries etc
Technical security around one’s operating system and downloading habits
Network security, understanding what SSL is, how to safely use a wifi hotspot, how your network connection can be attacked
Using the Tor browser bundle increases your base line of security in a number of ways including:
Automatic flushing of browser cache
Is Firefox so you support freedom
Randomised exit nodes almost useless to adversaries tracking you
Offers protection against local network tampering
One day I will probably write up a matrix of ‘who you are’ and ‘who are your adversaries’? as a wizard or small app. This will then customise the answer to your requirements.
That said, no you don’t need Tails if you going on Tor, however if you want to start being more privacy conscious with your computing habits, switching to Firefox then Linux is a good direction to take. Or simply install an ad blocker!
When I use Tor I always get shocked that sites have adverts…
In your experience, what topics are black and white in terms of acceptability within the DN, compared with the current internet and in physical life. (Necrophilia, CP etc) in other words is there anything actually off limits to most users?
Real world government are trying to control the internet as if they could effectively exercise their sovereignty over it, which they can’t. Users are learning that they themselves must bear the responsibility for what content they choose to watch rather than have it controlled by a regulator which is a major social and political change. For example, dark web sites today are far more segregated in their content. It used to be you could find a links site and it might link to illegal porn, scams, drug markets, weapons markets, blogs, whistle-blowers all in on place. However today you increasely find these areas separating themselves, with sites like Agora banning guns, poisons and fraud products. Many link sites are following suite, even if they have to get hacked to force them to.
id love to hear some crazy stories you’ve found so far
I honestly don’t have all that many. I did however find the crowdsourced assasination market back in early 2013. I then posted on my Facebook status:
Only $15,000 to kill Obama on this assassination market? WTF?
I then realised this is exactly the sort of thing that gets you put on the lists and deleted it, but knowing it was too late. I was quite relieved when the mainstream media picked it up later that year. I bet they don’t take me off the lists though
Yes I’d be interested in an AMA. My interests lies in showing its value to activism, journalism, and overall privacy so what have you seen that leads you to believe TOR is essential and active in these areas. The markets, CP, and script kiddie wikis seem to get the lions share of attention.
Do you have examples where DW/TOR is making society better?
Hacktivist groups? Dissident portals? Underground Railroad? I’d love to hear anything from that side.
There are not many constructive hacktavist groups on the dark web. Chinese Dark Web is perhaps one, however you will find many more black and grey hat operations instead.
The power of Tor right now is not in moving websites onto hidden services, but allowing use of the regular internet with the anonymisation that Tor adds. Also, it’s not just for activists. If you browse the normal internal with Tor (don’t bother with Facebook or Youtube) you’re doing your part to combat mass surveillance by governments and force them to go an track down actual bad guys rather than trapping us in a Panopticon.
Does the average consumer buying illegal substances or items like high powered weapons have a large risk of criminal charges if they were to use Bitcoin on a silk road style operation? What are the chances of being caught and prosecuted?
You seem to have focused on TOR for the majority of things.
Have you done any research into I2P?
It seems that I2P is generally ignored by most people. And I’m curious as to why that’s the case. is it simply because the barrier to entry is a bit higher? Or is there some others reason people seem to not talk about it.
I’d say the same is true of Freenet, but I think Freenet’s origins based on the desires of its founders and their own particular interests have cast a very bad image overall for that network.
Allegedly red rooms cannot be true or in live time because the connections are too slow. Is that correct? Even streamed music stations such as Pandora would be near impossible bc how many servers it has to go through befor it gets to you. Am I explaining this correctly?
Also, hitmen for hire are fake? Do people just upload a lot of scare tactics and bullshit just to freak people out? What’s the point? Every time I see a post about a hitman site it’s debunked. So basically it’s a scam? People make it to take your bitcoins, and never kill anyone?
What is your idea of what this sub should be?
The posting rules list a bunch of things that don’t belong here. What would mainly belong here rather than on Tor or Onions?
Edit: Sorry, I found about 75% of the answer to question 1. Still want to know if it’s legal to join if someone managed to find and get let in…
I’ve been interested in Pentesting, mostly for keeping my own site and computer safer. Is it legal to join the criminal hacker forums to learn and use the information for ethical hacking purposes? ex. Hack my friends with their permission, and help them secure their stuff, but never do anything illegal. Also, Is the pool of higher talent hackers in ethical hacking forums and chat rooms or in the dark web? Any benefit to going into those forums for someone interested in pen testing?
Long story short so you don’t have to read it, this guy joins a network that shows up out of nowhere for a brief moment, and all of the sudden someone starts posting his phone number, credit card numbers, physical addresses, his families physical addresses, etc… hacks into his webcam and watches him, all within a couple minutes.
I’m quite new to this deep web related subject, but my friend who uses tor recently found some creepy footage showing a women trapped in a room. It’s one of the videos in this compilation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XXM5_L0RWE
Do you know anything about it? Could you shed some light on this?
