Saturday, July 21, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Inside The Deep Web: My Journey Through The New Underground
The Internet has evolved quite a bit since I first logged on to CompuServe in 1994. I’d spent a few years tooling around on BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) connections throughout the country at that point and the most visible portions of a forming World Wide Web were quite innocent in appearance. But as I ramped up my father’s 4600 baud modem and looked around at the fringes of online existence, I unknowingly caught a glimpse at the Web’s early underbelly. From there, pornography, craziness and illegal activities were easily accessible. There weren’t many people logging on so, naturally, there weren’t many people to police this new digital space. Eventually, as AOL, Prodigy and other ISPs became more mainstream, the more nefarious outlets vanished into the shadows. But where did it all go? I recently took a plunge into the ‘Deep Web,’ a sub-surface area of the Internet not indexed by search engines and only available to those on the forefront of technology, namely people connected to the Tor Network. This network of hidden websites is the new underbelly of the Web, the New Underground, if you will, chock full of all sorts of illicit activities. Child porn peddlers, drug dealers, hitmen and other criminal groups thrive on the Deep Web and anonymity reigns supreme. The following post outlines my findings and hopefully sheds some light on the true Wild Wild West of the World Wide Web.
What is the Deep Web?: Wikipedia has an excellent overview on the Deep Web.
The Deep Web (also called Deepnet, the invisible Web, DarkNet, Undernet or the hidden Web) refers to World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines.
Mike Bergman, credited with coining the phrase,[1] has said that searching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean: a great deal may be caught in the net, but there is a wealth of information that is deep and therefore missed. Most of the Web’s information is buried far down on dynamically generated sites, and standard search engines do not find it. Traditional search engines cannot “see” or retrieve content in the deep Web – those pages do not exist until they are created dynamically as the result of a specific search. The deep Web is several orders of magnitude larger than the surface Web.
So if the Internet as you know it is an iceberg, the smallest part of that iceberg, the visible portion, is where you have been surfing your entire life. You visit websites, click links, use search engines to research topics of interest and generally just make your way around the visible Web. But below that visible portion, there is a much larger compilation of destinations beyond the reach of most Internet users. This portion, the Deep Web, is much harder for the average person to access and even harder to navigate. Much of the criminal activity that happens on the Deep Web is cloaked in anonymity, shrouded in secrecy or somehow hidden from the prying eyes that would love to put an end to this virtual land of OZ. Essentially what I’m saying is this: You may be familiar with the Internet, maybe even the darker side of the Internet. You may know how to find pornography for free, download music illegally, use a torrent program to download pirated movies and other media or purchase prescription pills from some online pharmacy. But if you haven’t visited the Deep Web, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Sure, there are research papers and legitimate and interesting pieces of content to view on The Other Side but there’s also some pretty nefarious happenings there.
How do you connect to the Deep Web?: Though the Deep Web may be beyond those of you with little in the way of technical and Web savvy, it’s not impossible, nor even extremely difficult to visit. First, you’ll need to download Tor, the software that allows you to access the Deep Web. Tor is designed to provide Internet users with as close to complete anonymity as possible. The Tor website describes their software and their mission as follows.
Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.
You can use Tor on virtually any PC, Mac or even mobile devices like the iPhone and Android-operated smartphones. But, if, like me, you’re using Firefox, you next need to install the Torbutton. With the Tor software up and running and the Torbutton installed, you’ll see a small onion logo near the address bar of your browser. If you’re correctly logged in to the Tor network, you can click this button and begin to explore the Deep Web. This collection of Deep Web links should get you started. But, keep in mind, you won’t be able to maneuver in this new land quite as easily as you did back on the visible Web. There is no Google-like search engine of these sites that I’m aware of at the moment. Instead, it’s a collection of Wikis and BBS-like sites that aggregate links to other locations on the Deep Web. These sites generally have bizarre, unmemorable domain names like SdddEEDOHIIDdddgmomionw.onion. That’s right, instead of .com, these domains generally end in the .onion suffix. And because you’ll never remember how you got to where you are if you spend any significant time here, it’s best to save URLs or bookmark your way through this journey.
What can you find on the Deep Web?: The Silk Road is the most popular place to buy drugs on the Deep Web. From ecstasy, pure MDMA, marijuana, psychedelics and seeds to opiates, they have basically any drug with a userbase. They also have categories for ‘services’ like hacking, ‘lab supplies’ like sulfuric acid and liquid mercury, ‘money’ for stolen credit cards, travelers checks and forged bills and coins, ‘jewelry’ like uncut stones, stolen gold and other precious metals obtained via devious means and finally ‘weapons’ where they currently list a Glock 17 for sale out of Canada that “includes 1 clip with 9 live rounds.” Another Deep Web drug outlet, the General Store, focuses on Ketamine, MDMA, MDPV and DMT (you may need to Google some of those).
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Could Cause Ultraviolet Damage to Skin
We know CFL bulbs are world-changingly efficient, producing the same level of light as their incandescent parents while using a quarter of the energy. But they're still a relatively new device, and few long-term studies have been carried out on them. One of the most recent, a new report from a team at Stony Brook, suggests CFLs might cause damage to skin by releasing UV rays.
Researchers rounded up CFL bulbs from two counties in New York, then measured their UV emissions and the strength of their phosphor coatings. They found cracks significant enough to release UV rays in every bulb. In a lab, they exposed healthy, in-vitro skin tissue to the rays and recorded it as "consistent with damage from ultraviolet radiation,” Miriam Rafailovich, the lead researcher, said in a statement.
That doesn't mean we need to have a mass burning of all our energy-saving lightbulbs, but the researchers suggest not using them at close distances and putting an extra glass cover around them.
Scientists Genetically Modify Bacteria in Mosquitoes for ‘Malaria Control’
In a further attempt to wipe out diseases via genetic modification, scientists are now genetically modifying bacteria found within the mid-gut of mosquitoes in order to ‘wipe out malaria’. Of course this form of malaria control is not the safest or most predictable, but as we know, scientists are continuously trying to genetically modify the world in which we live.
The British company responsible for the creation of the genetically modified mosquitoes created this internally manipulated insect to help control agricultural pests and reduce insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria. They received about $24 million from investors for their mosquito science project.
The issue with all of this? We simply do not know the potential outcomes that could arise from such manipulation of nature. As for present day genetic modification, all signs show that so far all we are doing is killing the food supply. Needless to say, the scientists know that it will be difficult to gain approval for this genetic modification regarding mosquitoes and malaria control.
“It may take quite a bit of effort,” Jacobs-Lorena said. “People are predisposed against genetically modified foods and plants. Imagine what kind of challenges we’ll have with this.”
Are we really ‘predisposed against genetically modified foods and plants,’ or are we simply not blind to the devastating prices genetically modified organisms, such as Monsanto’s GMO corn, come with?
Source: Activist Post
Malaria Control – Reducing Malaria Through Genetic Modification?
In order to ‘kill’ malaria in mosquitoes, scientists are genetically modifying a bacterium called Pantoea agglomerans so that it secretes toxic proteins. These toxic proteins are ‘not harmful’ to humans or the mosquito itself, but they do kill off the malaria parasite. One of the toxic compounds blocks the malaria from attaching to a crucial protein which allows it to survive, while another compound may penetrate the malaria’s protective outer layer, ultimately leading to its death.
“There are not one, but several anti-malaria compounds the bacterium secretes . . . Each acts by a different mechanism and makes it much more difficult for the parasite to develop a resistance to it,” explained Dr. Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, senior author of the study and a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Is this a good method for malaria control?
In order to ‘kill’ malaria in mosquitoes, scientists are genetically modifying a bacterium called Pantoea agglomerans so that it secretes toxic proteins. These toxic proteins are ‘not harmful’ to humans or the mosquito itself, but they do kill off the malaria parasite. One of the toxic compounds blocks the malaria from attaching to a crucial protein which allows it to survive, while another compound may penetrate the malaria’s protective outer layer, ultimately leading to its death.
“There are not one, but several anti-malaria compounds the bacterium secretes . . . Each acts by a different mechanism and makes it much more difficult for the parasite to develop a resistance to it,” explained Dr. Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, senior author of the study and a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Is this a good method for malaria control?
If history has taught the world anything about genetic modification, absolutely not.
In the past, scientists have actually modified the mosquitoes themselves. You may remember that before this endeavor of malaria control was the genetic modification of mosquitoes by a company called Oxitec.
The British company responsible for the creation of the genetically modified mosquitoes created this internally manipulated insect to help control agricultural pests and reduce insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria. They received about $24 million from investors for their mosquito science project.
The issue with all of this? We simply do not know the potential outcomes that could arise from such manipulation of nature. As for present day genetic modification, all signs show that so far all we are doing is killing the food supply. Needless to say, the scientists know that it will be difficult to gain approval for this genetic modification regarding mosquitoes and malaria control.
“It may take quite a bit of effort,” Jacobs-Lorena said. “People are predisposed against genetically modified foods and plants. Imagine what kind of challenges we’ll have with this.”
Are we really ‘predisposed against genetically modified foods and plants,’ or are we simply not blind to the devastating prices genetically modified organisms, such as Monsanto’s GMO corn, come with?
Source: Activist Post
New Cybersecurity Proposal Patches Serious Privacy Vulnerabilities
For months, we’ve been raising the alarm about the serious civil liberties implications of the cybersecurity bills making their way through the Senate. Hours ago, we received some good news. A new bill called the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (S 3414) is replacing the prior Lieberman-Collins Cybersecurity Act (S 2150). This new bill drastically improves upon the previous bill by addressing the most glaring privacy concerns. This is huge, and it’s thanks to the outcry of Internet users like you worried about their online privacy. Check out the new bill (PDF).
Make no mistake—we remain unpersuaded that any of the proposed cybersecurity measures are necessary and we still have concerns about certain sections of the bill, especially the sections on monitoring and countermeasures. But this was a big step in the direction of protecting online rights, and we wouldn’t be here without the support of Internet users contacting Congress in droves.
Here’s what you need to know about the new privacy-protective package. Major new privacy protections added to the bill:
- Ensuring that only civilian agencies—not the National Security Agency—are in charge of our nation’s cybersecurity systems. Let’s face it, we don’t want the agency that’s been spearheading the illegal warrantless wiretapping program for over 11 years to be charged with protecting citizens’ privacy interests in the realm of cybersecurity.
- Ensuring data isn’t shared with law enforcement except in very specific, limited circumstances. Language in the first Lieberman-Collins Cybersecurity Act would have allowed data collected under cybersecurity purposes to be passed to law enforcement if there was evidence of criminal activity. This raised major concerns about our online service providers snooping through our communications for potentially incriminating data and passing it to the government without a warrant—a digital Big Brother. The new language of the bill limits data flowing to the government to information which appears to pertain to 1. A cybersecurity crime investigation; 2. An imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm; and 3. A serious threat to minors, like sexual exploitation and threats to physical safety.
- Ensuring that data collected through cybersecurity programs can’t be used to prosecute other, unrelated crimes. The early version of the bill would have allowed data collected through cybersecurity programs to prosecute any crime—like copyright infringement or immigration status or drug usage. Now, the only crimes that can be prosecuted using data collected through S 3414 are violations of state or federal laws relating to computer crimes.
- Carve-outs for free speech and terms of service violations. The new privacy package makes it clear that Constitutionally-protected free speech and terms of service violations won’t constitute a “cybersecurity threat.”
There is also some language about net neutrality intended to ensure that nothing in the bill can be construed as granting new authority to engage in non-neutral behavior.
Of course, the bill has its shortcomings. The most significant problem remaining has to do with the language around monitoring and countermeasures. Currently, the bill specifically authorizes companies to use cybsersecurity as an excuse for engaging in nearly unlimited monitoring of user data or countermeasures (like blocking or dropping packets). We’ve argued that this language is overly broad and could be interpreted by an overzealous ISP to let them block privacy-protective technologies like Tor. When the bill goes to the floor next week, we’re going to be throwing our weight behind amendments to address these ongoing flaws.
This new bill patches a whole bunch of significant privacy problems with the prior proposals, and so we’re grateful for the Senators who responded to the Internet community’s concerns and championed these protections. Now it’s up to us: we need to speak out and tell Senators not to undermine these hard-won privacy protections, and hopefully tell them to go one step further and fix the problems remaining with monitoring and countermeasures. Our contacts in Washington tell us it’s likely that opponents will try to strip out these protections by hyping up fears of catastrophic cyberattacks and calling for stronger national security provisions. We need to organize now to stop any Floor amendments that would undermine these major privacy wins.
Please, send a note to your Senators now asking them to defend these hard-won privacy protections against any amendments and work to fix the monitoring and countermeasures sections of the bill.
As we’ve said before, we don’t know if a cybersecurity bill is necessary or desirable at this moment. We continue to oppose any language that unnecessarily and broadly expands existing power to engage in surveillance. But we also commend the Senate’s efforts to build these strong privacy protections into the new bill, and we’re asking the Internet to join us in fighting to keep those protections strong (and, hopefully, make them even stronger).
Things are heating up quickly. Please stay tuned to the EFF blog, Twitter feed, and mailing list for updates on the campaign.
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