• Deep Web, or The Invisible Side of the Internet. Deep Web: how to get there? Deep Internet: what happens there and how to get there

    What is the Dark Web or Darknet, how does it differ from the Deep Web, and why are these two terms always confused? We decided to help you figure it out and at the same time warn you - after all, the Darknet, for all its attractiveness, accessibility and alluring spirit of freedom and permissiveness, is a very dangerous place, wandering through which can cost you quite a lot (both literally and figuratively).

    What is the Dark Web?

    The Dark Web is a term that refers to a group of specific websites that exist in an encrypted network space. They cannot be found by traditional search engines and cannot be reached using traditional browsers. It is also often used by Dark Net, but do not confuse it with Dark Internet (discussed below)

    Almost all Darknet or Dark Web sites hide personal data using Tor encryption tools. This network (did you know, by the way, that this is an abbreviation for The Onion Router?) may be familiar to you due to its ability to hide user identification data and network activities. You can use Tor to hide your location in a way that makes it seem like you're surfing the web from a different country than where you actually are. This is very similar to how VPN services do it.

    If a website runs through Tor, it has much the same effect, and even multiplies it. Sites designated as the Tor Hidden Service are only accessible when connected to the Tor network. Simply put, if you don't connect to this network, you won't get anything.

    Pseudo-suffix “Hidden Services. onion" does not work with DNS servers, and Hidden Services URLs are a 16-character alphanumeric set automatically generated using a public encryption key at the time the site is created. You can copy the Tor link and try to open it in a regular browser, but this will lead you to a dead end.

    To visit a Dark Web site using Tor encryption, the Internet user will have to use Tor themselves. Just as an end user's IP address bounces through multiple layers of encryption to get to another IP address on the Tor network, the same is true for Internet sites. Each node knows only those nodes that are directly connected to it (it knows nothing about how your PC connects to the web server). Any transition from one node to another is carried out using its own set of encryption keys. This reduces performance and speed, but significantly improves the security of your anonymous movements.

    There are several levels of privacy, even greater than the already secret fact that you are using Tor to visit a regular Internet site.

    What follows from this? That Darknet sites can be visited by anyone, but it is extremely difficult to figure out which people are behind them. But this can become dangerous - in certain cases.

    Silk Road to Oblivion and others

    But not all Dark Web sites use Tor encryption. Some people use similar services, such as I2P or Silk Road Reloaded. The visitor will have to use the same decryption method that is used on the site being visited, and - what is critical - know exactly how to find this site, even to the point of manually entering a link just to visit this site.

    Notorious examples of Darknet sites include Silk Road (which translates to "Silk Road") and its derivatives. Silk Road was (and probably still is) a site for buying and selling drugs "for recreational purposes" - for those who want to relax in an illegal way from time to time. This is one example of the Dark Web being used for nefarious purposes.

    The dark web made headlines in August 2015 after it was revealed that 10 GB of information had been stolen from Ashley Madison, a site designed to provide a convenient way for bored spouses to cheat on their partners, all of which was posted on the vastness of the Dark Web.

    The hackers who stole the data threatened to spread it across the Internet unless the site shut down, and he has operated under that threat ever since. Now, spouses of Ashley Madison subscribers have begun to receive blackmail letters demanding the transfer of $2,500 in bitcoins - or all personal data will be made public.

    In March 2015, the British government established a dedicated Dark Web Cybercrime Unit, specifically targeting organized crime and child pornography. The National Crime Agency (NCA) and the British intelligence unit GCHQ together created the Joint Operations Section (JOC) for this purpose.

    But there are still completely acceptable reasons for using the Darknet. We are talking about freedom of information.

    The population of closed countries with a totalitarian system can sometimes only communicate with the outside world through the Dark Web. And recent revelations of surveillance by American and British government intelligence agencies of the Internet activities of their citizens and you may lead to the sensible idea of ​​​​transferring your online communications to the Darknet. (I’ll stay on Facebook, but I just like the attention.)

    What is the Deep Web?

    Although the terms Deep Web and Dark Web are often used interchangeably, they are by no means equivalent. There is some nuance here. The name Deep Web generally refers to all sites that cannot be found through search engines.

    Thus, the Deep Web includes not only the Dark Web, but also all user databases, mail pages, abandoned sites and personal pages, online forums with mandatory registration, and paid online content. There are a huge number of such pages, and most of them exist for the most common reasons.

    For example, as an online publication, we have "mock" versions of all our web pages, blocked from being indexed by search engines, so that we can test the content and design of a publication before releasing it to the public. Therefore, every page publicly viewable on this internet site (and literally millions of similar pages and sites) has a duplicate on the deep web.

    The content management system in which I am preparing this article is also located on the deep web. Here you have another hidden duplicate for each page of the public site. At the same time, our working corporate network is also closed from search engines and password protected. And since all this has existed for about 20 years, our network has become quite overgrown with secret duplicates.

    Do you use online access to your bank account? Your password-protected data is somewhere deep in the tenets of the Deep Web. And if you estimate how many pages a single Gmail account generates, then the true size of the “deep web” will become at least approximately clear.

    This is why newspapers and popular news outlets regularly return to horror stories about the “90% of the Internet” consisting of the “dark web.” They simply confuse the risky and generally evil Dark Web with the vastly larger but largely benign ocean of the Deep Web.

    At the same time, they equate with each other such actions as deliberate concealment of activities from the law and normal protection from search engine access for the sake of maintaining confidentiality or simply for banal work purposes.

    What is the Dark Web?

    Adding to the confusion, the term Dark Internet is sometimes used to describe the following examples of networks, databases, or even websites that cannot be found on the open Internet. In this case, this happens either for technical reasons, or because they contain some kind of private information not for public use.

    The main practical difference is that the Dark Web or Deep Web are usually used by news people to refer to corners of the Internet full of dangers and hidden agendas, while the "dark web" is just boring warehouses where scientists store raw data for your further research.

    But, of course, you are interested in how to get on the Darknet

    Technically it's not particularly difficult. You just need to install and run Tor. Download the Tor Browser Bundle from www.torproject.org - all the necessary tools are already contained there. Open the downloaded archive, select a location on your hard drive for the files after unpacking, then open the folder and run the Start Tor Browser file. That's all, actually.

    The Vidalia control panel will automatically connect to the mysterious encrypted network and, once connected, open a browser. To disconnect from the Tor network, simply close the browser.

    Depending on what you intend to do, some conspiracy theorists recommend covering your laptop's webcam with duct tape to prevent your overly curious and tech-savvy "big brother" from spying on you. In this case, we can recommend wearing a tin foil hat at the same time.

    The hardest part is figuring out where, what, and how to look on the Dark Web. This is where we leave you, reader, and wish you good luck and safe searching. And one more warning before you go any further: by logging into the Dark Web, you have a real chance of getting to all those sites that the tabloids scare us with. This means that right now you could be just a couple of clicks away from places offering drugs, weapons and - frankly - even worse.

    Aggregators like Reddit offer long lists of links, as do some Wiki pages, a list that offers access to some really dirty places. If you wish, you can briefly familiarize yourself with them, but we would not recommend that you do so.

    Also keep in mind: Darknet sites go down from time to time - such is their dark nature. And if good customer support is important to you, stay away from the darkness and closer to the light!

    Once again, please heed our warning: this article is not an attempt to encourage or condone your further, possibly illegal or immoral behavior.

    21Dec

    What is Deep Web

    Deep Web(Deep Web) or as it is also called “ deep web"is a set of information resources that are hidden from ordinary search engines.

    In simple words, these are sites that cannot be found in a search using a regular search engine like Google or Yandex. They are, so to speak, deep underground, and only those who know how to do this can get to them.

    How much data does the Deep Web contain?

    According to research, it has been found that only a small part is included in the main search engine index. The remaining part remains unknown to most Internet users. According to various estimates, the amount of content hidden in deep networks is hundreds of times greater than the amount of publicly available data.

    How does the Deep Web work?

    In order to understand how sites get into the search we are used to, we need to understand what it is and how it works. The system works as follows: search engines have their own search robots that constantly scan all the data that comes their way. But such " bloodhounds» work according to certain rules, which, if desired, can be circumvented, leaving your site unavailable for scanning.

    Examples of how sites are hidden:

    • Private sites: sites that require registration and authorization. Such resources provide access to information only with a password, remaining completely closed to anyone who does not have one.
    • Restricted access to content: sites that limit access to their pages in technical terms. For example, using robot exception standards, captchas and similar technical obstacles.
    • Non-HTML material: text content is encoded into media ( images or videos). Files, or certain file formats, are not processed by search engines.

    There are a lot of ways to hide a website. As they say, “if there is a desire.”

    Who uses the Deep Web?

    Hidden networks containing vast amounts of information represent an invaluable resource for various private companies, governments and especially cybercriminals. Since the Deep Web is considered to be a place where people have much more anonymity, this opens up enormous opportunities for various illegal scams.

    The deep web can be used to purchase weapons and drugs, stolen credit cards, malware, illicit porn, and even slaves. This is a whole shadow world in which all rules and principles are blurred.

    The main payment currency for settlements in Deep Web is -, this allows you to maintain the anonymity of transactions.

    Having heard about the mythical Deep or Dark Internet, the user immediately wonders how to get there, how to access a site that is not accessible to ordinary Internet users. If you are also tormented by such curiosity, then this article should help you.

    What is the Dark or Deep Internet

    First, you need to briefly understand what the Deep Internet is and what the Dark Internet is. There is a lot of confusion with these terms, but to put it simply, these two names mean the same thing, namely the hidden part of the World Wide Web.

    Different parts of this Deep Internet operate on different principles. Sometimes these are simply sites that are not indexed by search engines and therefore are only accessible through a direct link. Sometimes these are sites to access that require a password. And in some cases, these are sites operating on the TOR network.

    In this article we will talk about how to get into this part of the Dark Internet, which operates on the TOR network. The TOR network is a computer network that runs on top of the regular Internet and uses the principle of onion routing. All information on the TOR network is encrypted and transmitted through several intermediate servers, making it more difficult to track the location and identity of the user.

    Resources in the TOR network have their own top-level domain – ONION. Of course, this domain is not officially registered anywhere, but this does not prevent it from being used if software for working with the TOR network is installed on the computer. Thanks to this domain, it is very easy to distinguish links to regular websites on the regular Internet from links to Dark Web resources on the TOR network.

    How to get into the Deep or Dark Internet

    From the outside it may seem that in order to get into the Deep Internet you need to be a hacker and have some significant knowledge in the field of computer networks. In fact, everything is much simpler. All you need to access the Dark Web is a special browser called TOR Browser. Well, you will also need access to the regular Internet, but I think this is already clear.

    So, we take the first step to enter the Deep Internet - download TOR Browser. To do this, go to the website, click on the “Download” button and download the installation EXE file to your computer.

    Next, run the downloaded EXE file and install TOR Browser on your computer. The installation process for this browser is no different from installing other programs, so this should not cause any problems. Just select the Russian language, select the installation folder and wait for TOR Browser to install on your computer.

    After installation, launch TOR Browser and in the window that appears, click “Connect”. This way you will connect to the TOR network with standard settings. This connection option is suitable for most cases. But, if there are problems with the normal connection, you can click on the “Configure” button and change the standard connection settings. You can read more about this in our article “”.

    After connecting to the TOR network, a “Congratulations” or “Welcome” message should appear in the TOR browser. This means that everything is working and you can enter the Deep Internet.

    Now, in order to get to the Dark Internet, enter the site “thehiddenwiki.org” into the address bar of your TOP browser and go to it.

    After loading thehiddenwiki.org site, you will see a list of links to popular resources on the Deep Web. Go to any resource and you are already in the Deep Internet. As was written at the beginning of the article, you can distinguish links to Deep Internet resources from regular links by their first-level domain. All website addresses on the Deep Web end in ONION.

    It should be noted that some links to Dark Internet resources may not open. This is quite normal, don't be surprised. This is not your ordinary Internet; not everything here works as smoothly as you are used to.

    The web is like an iceberg. Information available for mass use is only the tip of it. The underwater part is a hidden Deep Web network containing a huge amount of prohibited information. How to get here has long been no secret for Internet users.

    Shadow Internet

    Thanks to a sufficient number of information sites, social networks, blogs, and torrent trackers, many users do not even think about the existence of an even larger amount of information. According to some estimates, what is on the surface is only 1/5000 of the data. On the Internet, you can only rarely find strange, atypical content, which, as a rule, is hidden from the average reader.

    Increasingly, network users are asking questions about the Web, how to get to it, and what opportunities it offers. The Deep Web is an anonymous shadow Internet that provides complete freedom of action.

    How to get to the Deep Web?

    In order to get into the Deep Web, you need to acquire its capabilities through the means of anonymous network connections that bypass the provider’s servers.

    The speed of surfing on the shadow Internet is much lower than usual due to the fact that it is done through several network nodes. Such a system allows other client information.

    On the other hand, although the data transmitted along the chain is securely encrypted, it is still possible for it to be intercepted at the last node that interacts directly with the server. For this reason, it is recommended to periodically change the packet sending chain. It is worth understanding that the browser is the best option in terms of anonymity, but nevertheless cannot guarantee it 100%.

    Finding Tor in one of your usual search engines will not be difficult. The browser interface replicates the elements of Mozilla Firefox, which will allow you to get used to it without any extra effort.

    The Hidden Wiki

    Traveling through the hidden Internet with the help of Deep Web Search has already acquired a certain mystical connotation, and users who sink to the “bottom of the network” have even acquired their own name - netstalkers. It is believed that for such surfing you need to have certain technical knowledge and be able to identify hidden encrypted links and codes. But even a few well-known resources, the addresses of which are posted on the main page of The Hidden Wiki, are quite enough to interest and surprise the reader.

    All banned sites have the domain ".onion". Access to them is usually limited in regular browsers.

    Narcotic drugs

    In The Hidden Wiki you can also find a specially designated “Drugs” item, which contains a fairly extensive list of resources for the sale of various narcotic drugs. Sites with .onion domains are not very reliable and change their addresses quite often on the Deep Web. How can I get to the same page next time? You will most likely have to learn about this from recent posts on various forums. Of course, all this is explained by their illegality and a fairly large number of users who do not want to put up with the proximity of prohibited content.

    Not so long ago, the most popular resource for selling drugs was Silk Road, but after the arrest of its creator, the project was closed, and in its place appeared Silk Road 2.0, which was even larger in terms of monetary turnover, which was recently followed by its third version. Due to the fact that payments are made in Bitcoint currency, users are guaranteed complete confidentiality. In order to use the resource, you need to go through a short registration, after which you are immediately given the opportunity to begin choosing the products offered with the prices indicated on them. Everything looks about the same as in regular online stores, with the exception of the products themselves.

    Immoral content

    Also, some is occupied by the sale of immoral pornographic products, represented in the Deep Web by photo and video content. The fight against such a product is unsuccessful due to the huge costs associated with it. In contrast, a large proportion of onion sites do not post such content for ethical reasons.

    On The Hidden Wiki you can find other controversial Deep Web links that provide a huge variety of very unusual services and products.

    Russified content

    The Deep Web consists almost entirely of English-language sites, and the share of Russified resources in it is very small. However, there are several trading platforms, led by Russian Road, which offer stolen electronics, counterfeit documents, as well as smuggled black caviar and other similar products. The site also adheres to the rules of “morality” and does not host child pornography, nor does it provide killer services. Many resources claim that the sale of drugs and weapons is not prohibited in absolutely all countries, while the danger of immoral content is obvious.

    Firearms

    Thanks to the shadow network, on the Black Market website, those who wish can purchase firearms for an average of $300 cheaper than in official stores, where they still require lengthy registration and fiddling with paperwork. The administration of the resource reports that they have several warehouses with weapons and narcotic drugs, which they can successfully disguise and deliver in parcels.

    Killer services

    Hitman Network is interesting in terms of the services offered. The Deep Web has its own concepts about the value of life. For example, ordering such a service in the United States will cost 10 thousand dollars, and in Europe it will cost 12 thousand. The entire service will be no different from purchasing in any online store. Of course, the organizers have their own restrictions - the object must be over 16 and not be among the TOP 10 politicians. The site also offers 1% discounts on orders from attracted customers.

    Fake documents

    There are many onion sites involved in the production and sale of such resources can be found using Deep web search, represented by the search engines “deeperweb”, “DuckDuckGo” and many others. Communication with the site owners occurs via email, and in most cases, sellers use hacked mailboxes of users who are absolutely not involved in such operations.

    Hacker services

    Also, similar resources often offer services for hacking mail and various Internet accounts. There are even specialists who are capable of destroying a person’s reputation by accusing him of pedophilia or other unacceptable behavior. Moreover, the price range for such operations is within $200-300.

    Stolen goods

    In the vastness of Deep Web links, it is possible to launder Bitcoins, purchase stolen Paypal accounts and other services. There is also the sale of stolen mobile phones, which cost only a third of the real price. Basically, online resources try to work covering a wide range of goods and services.

    News services

    If you want to read censored news, the Deep Web can help. How to get to such sites on the deep web is no secret. There are a huge number of prohibited political and even terrorist sites here. It was with the help of the technology of “onion” connections presented in the Tor browser that such a large-scale project as WikiLeaks was first implemented.

    Deep Web links 2014 is presented with the most popular services on the Wiki website, where users can find popular and interesting, and most importantly, working news sites.

    There are even stranger resources on the lower layers of the Deep Web, containing information with a paranormal, mystical tinge. Information about such things is not made public, and getting to them will be much more difficult. Such an activity will require considerable effort and a deeper study of the hidden network from personal experience.

    Hello, today I will talk about one computer network that is based on the Internet infrastructure. In it you can find everything that is not on the regular Internet: arms trafficking, drugs, child pornography and much more. Servers with this content are located in the “Deep Web” zone - segments of the Internet that are not accessible for indexing by search engines. Access to many of these sites is possible only through a chain of encrypted connections - the TOR network, whose nodes are scattered throughout the world.

    Special warning, if you are a normal person, you really will NOT like what you see there. If your nerves are okay, a selection of screenshots is in the continuation of the post.


    TOR client management console. The screen displays the current route of traffic through the encrypted network. All connections are anonymous, you can create a new route at any time. However, TOR does not guarantee 100% protection against interception, since data can be “listened to” at the provider level at the stages of entering and exiting the network. The software client can operate as an input or output point, so that flows of other people’s traffic will pass through it, and the owner of such a computer will always be able to say “that someone else downloaded/visited” and will be right. By the way, they say about TOR that it consists of 99% trolls, hackers, child porn lovers and FBI agents.

    Since regular search indexing on the Internet is not available, collections of links to various resources are popular in TOR. The most famous of them is HiddenWiki, one of the largest. Since access to it is anonymous, it is often vandalized, for example by deleting sections with links to child porn. It also contains archives of all AnonOps operations, with all the data and files stolen from the FBI. Even WikiLeaks would be jealous of some of the information.

    HackBB is one of the largest boards for sharing experiences in the field of cybercrime. There is also a kind of market where you can buy a pack of credit card data, spambots, order DDoS (for example, on LJ) or hacking of mail or a specific site. Most transactions go through an intermediary - a person with an established reputation who will not lose it for the sake of immediate gain. Of course, the intermediary takes a percentage for his services. Basically, they sell credit card data, but once they even sold an administrator account in World of Warcraft.

    The prices are not very high. Card data is obtained from skimmers at ATMs. With such cards you can make online purchases without any problems. Data with a pin and full scans of cards are a little more expensive - with such information you can make a real card and make purchases in stores.

    Due to encryption and a large chain of nodes, the connection speed in TOR is very, very low, so most sites are designed extremely ascetically. Often this is ordinary HTML, just like 15 years ago, when the Internet was just appearing in Russia, and even that was carried out through modem access.

    Search for computer hacker services. Please note - 6 (six!) minutes from posting a task to finding a vulnerability and showing readiness to help in this delicate matter. This is where Department K needs to look for personnel.

    Here's a scam going on using Verizon.

    In addition to online services, there are also clothing stores on the deep Internet where they sell stolen equipment and technology. These are very affordable prices for Apple products. Surely my brand new MacBook, which was stolen from me in Madagascar, is also somewhere here.

    But the guys from Russia are selling skimmers. Put it in an ATM and withdraw the details of other people’s cards until you get tired of it. Below are some more photos of their products.

    Card reader, installed as an overlay on an ATM.

    A box with a camera that imitates an ATM part.

    Her insides. Miniature camera and Flash memory.

    Installation examples. As expected, the skimmer comes with an instruction manual, warranty card and drivers.

    Here we understand that the guys are from Russia. My soul cannot be happier for my compatriot craftsmen...

    In the vastness of the encrypted network, nationalist revolutionaries from among the most different countries. They create forums, access to closed sections is possible only to trusted members who have proven their loyalty by some brave act, such as beating up an immigrant or drawing swastikas on fences.

    Revolutionaries in Denmark actively share personal information of government officials they dislike. Their phone numbers, addresses, names of their relatives. This is the head of all prisons in Denmark.

    Here's the police chief. The radicals are also unhappy with her. These guys, in particular, had a lot of information on Denmark, Sweden and Germany. It turns out that everything is not as calm there as it seems to us from here, from Russia.

    For lovers of all sorts of shady dealings, a wide range of fake documents and identity cards is always available. Too lazy to apply for Schengen and a visa? Buy yourself a Czech passport, for example, and that’s it.

    Product samples: driver's license. States of Hawaii and Maine. You can discover all the categories and travel with them in Russia without any problems.

    And here is a fake passport. The seller prudently wears gloves so as not to leave unnecessary marks.

    As a result, in Europe you can also easily buy all the necessary documents. True, unlike Russia, they can do all this via the Internet - that’s what service means.

    Another passport. By the way, all goods are sent by regular mail. Contrary to the statements of postal services, no organization is simply able to inspect all goods and parcels for the presence of substances and items prohibited for transportation. The drugs are hidden, and the weapons are disassembled into their component parts and sent through several parcels. How difficult do you think it is to hide and send a passport or plastic card?

    The title page of the section with links to child pornography in HiddenWiki. 5 seconds before the screenshot was taken, it was “vandalized” - but a moment later it was restored again. Seasoned pedophiles, as a rule, self-organize into sites based on interests, where they exchange photographs and experiences. Some of these resources are open to everyone, and some require a “contribution” to the common fund of the collection of pornographic materials.

    List of major porn forums with DP. Nobody knows the exact number of disgusting resources, but there are very, very many of them.

    The main page of one of the popular English-language forums on this topic. It is unlikely that such a site would last on the regular Internet for more than 10 minutes.

    Some pedophiles openly brag about their achievements and create websites about themselves and their victims. Here is an example of one of them. Yes, it's all one site.

    Photo removed=-

    And here is the dating section on one of the resources. A married couple is looking for a young boy to sleep with his young wife.

    One of the largest child porn sites. The creators claim hundreds of gigabytes. Perverts who visit it have access to search, tags, catalogers and commenting on the materials they like. If we remove all pedophiles from this site, the number of these scum on the loose will be reduced by at least several times.

    These freaks live among us, go to work with us, travel in public transport, etc. Having access to such resources, they only deepen their corruption, which can ultimately lead to their active actions. Access to such resources must be clearly blocked and prohibited. Unfortunately, our law enforcement agencies seem to be completely unaware of the existence of TOR.

    And of course, there is a place for traditional perverts. The smiling dog happily greets everyone who visits the site.

    Oddly enough, there are also fighters against pedophilia in the deep network. Here is a screenshot from one resource where pedophilia is discussed as a disease, and the administrator is trying to guide the perverts who come to him on the right path.

    Silk Road is the largest online drug trafficking resource. On the site and its forums you can buy all kinds of all kinds of substances. In addition, there is an active trade in weapons and equipment for drug laboratories. SilkRoad uses an internal currency - bitcoins. For the normal functioning of the market, there are exchange offices where bitcoins can be exchanged for regular money.

    Heroin with delivery. Sealed packages, Russian Post.

    The legendary "Desert Eagle" - with delivery in parts all over the world.

    A pleasant and convenient Glock for solving life's problems.

    Lot placed for solving some private transactions. “For Dmitry” - the Russian trace is immediately visible.

    Two Glocks with silencers. Worldwide delivery, by mail, in parts.

    We are approaching the Russian segment of the TOR network. Directory of links. Child porn is neatly called a “highly specialized topic.”

    There are also our own Russian drug stores.

    Another example of such a store.

    Large selection of items and several delivery options.

    It's not just drugs that are available. Left SIM cards:

    Some weapons:

    And discussion of current political topics.

    In the Russian Federation there are no problems with documents either. In the discussion, the seller says that Russian passports are also available, but more complicated and more expensive.

    And here are the Russian pedophiles. One of their many forums. To gain access there, you need to post your story of seducing a child in one of the available sections, so that everyone else can be convinced that he is a pedophile and let him into their pedophile arms.

    In fact, TOR was not intended to be a pedophile network. It was created for some military needs, but was eventually declassified and made publicly available, after which its active development began. It began to be used by a variety of people, ranging from journalists seeking to remain incognito when conducting investigations and safe communication with organizers, to law enforcement agencies who did not want to “reveal” their official IP addresses when visiting various sites. Thus, there is nothing wrong with the TOR network itself; it is a very convenient and good tool for protecting a person’s privacy and bypassing Internet censorship.

    And yet, now it is at the same time a breeding ground for pedophiles, cybercriminals and perverts, which is just a couple of clicks from the regular Internet, and the essence of this problem in relation to our country lies not in the availability of TOR, but in the complete prostration of our law enforcement agencies regarding capabilities of this network.

    Governments of different countries are trying to fight the deep Internet. In 2006, German intelligence agencies seized six computers operating as nodes of the Tor network on the grounds that they were illegally used to access child pornography.

    In 2007, German police arrested Alexander Janssen in Düsseldorf, who organized a Tor server on his computer through which an unknown person sent a false message about a terrorist attack. Although Mr. Janssen was soon released, he decided not to continue using his computer as a Tor exit point.

    On September 25, 2009, 80% of the IP addresses of public Tor servers were blacklisted by the Great Firewall of China.

    Unfortunately, I did not find any evidence of domestic law enforcement agencies fighting TOR. Perhaps they do it anonymously.

    Why am I telling all this? The next time you see a message that you have closed another torrent tracker or pirate, do not rush to be indignant. Recently, the image of Internet pirates has been too idealized. But the problem is much deeper. This is why more attention needs to be drawn to them and we need to fight them. Until there is a wide response in society to this problem, pedophiles and cybercriminals will continue to fearlessly continue their dirty work.