The Dark Web Dilemma: Tor, Anonymity and Online Policing

This study examines the multifaceted legal challenges faced by governments and law enforcement agencies in their efforts to regulate the dark web. Through an analysis of existing legal frameworks, case studies, and emerging regulatory approaches, we identify key obstacles, including jurisdictional complexities, technological limitations, privacy considerations, and the balance between security imperatives and civil liberties. This research highlights how the anonymous, borderless nature of dark web spaces creates unprecedented regulatory difficulties that traditional legal systems struggle to address effectively. We conclude by proposing a multi-stakeholder framework that balances legitimate privacy interests with security requirements, while acknowledging the technical and jurisdictional realities of regulating hidden online spaces.

2010

2007

To date, there has yet to be a study that characterizes the usage of a real deployed anonymity service. In this paper, we present observations and analysis obtained by participating in the Tor network. In particular, we are interested in answering the following questions: (1) Who uses Tor? What is the performance of the system? (3) How is the system used? (4) What does the traffic distribution look like? and (5) What are the legal and ethical implications of participating in an anonymous network?

This chapter aims to take a closer look at the issue of user control online, through the prism of anonymity and responsibility. It does so by examining the recent events which were part of “operation payback”, initiated by the online organization/collective/gathering “Anonymous”. In response to several companies’ perceived transgressions, Anonymous has commenced an attack on their public domain servers. In addition, they provided sympathetic web users with a free and easy to use DDoS tool to facilitate the attacks. This paper draws the distinction between Anonymous and hackers, and compares the relation of the two groups with the powers that be. The aim is to show how multitude of varying factors have led to increased resistance to Anonymous because they are not hackers, and how they in fact may contribute to limiting user control online rather than empower it.

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study on discussions about two major law enforcement interventions against Dark Net Market (DNM) users extracted from relevant Reddit forums. We assess the impact of Operation Hyperion and Operation Bayonet (combined with the closure of the site Hansa) by analyzing posts and comments made by users of two Reddit forums created for the discussion of Dark Net Markets. The operations are compared in terms of the size of the discussions, the consequences recorded, and the opinions shared by forum users. We find that Operation Bayonet generated a higher number of discussions on Reddit, and from the qualitative analysis of such discussions it appears that this operation also had a greater impact on the DNM ecosystem.

Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2015

The layers of the Internet go far beyond the surface content that many can easily access in their daily searches. The other content is that of the Deep Web, content that has not been indexed by traditional search engines such as Google. The furthest corners of the Deep Web, segments known as the Dark Web, contain content that has been intentionally concealed. The Dark Web may be used for legitimate purposes as well as to conceal criminal or otherwise malicious activities. It is the exploitation of the Dark Web for illegal practices that has garnered the interest of officials and policymakers. Individuals can access the Dark Web by using special software such as Tor (short for The Onion Router). Tor relies upon a network of volunteer computers to route users' web traffic through a series of other users' computers such that the traffic cannot be traced to the original user. Some developers have created tools-such as Tor2web-that may allow individuals access to Torhosted content without downloading and installing the Tor software, though accessing the Dark Web through these means does not anonymize activity. Once on the Dark Web, users often navigate it through directories such as the "Hidden Wiki," which organizes sites by category, similar to Wikipedia. Individuals can also search the Dark Web with search engines, which may be broad, searching across the Deep Web, or more specific, searching for contraband like illicit drugs, guns, or counterfeit money. While on the Dark Web, individuals may communicate through means such as secure email, web chats, or personal messaging hosted on Tor. Though tools such as Tor aim to anonymize content and activity, researchers and security experts are constantly developing means by which certain hidden services or individuals could be identified or "deanonymized." Anonymizing services such as Tor have been used for legal and illegal activities ranging from maintaining privacy to selling illegal goods-mainly purchased with Bitcoin or other digital currencies. They may be used to circumvent censorship, access blocked content, or maintain the privacy of sensitive communications or business plans. However, a range of malicious actors, from criminals to terrorists to state-sponsored spies, can also leverage cyberspace and the Dark Web can serve as a forum for conversation, coordination, and action. It is unclear how much of the Dark Web is dedicated to serving a particular illicit market at any one time, and, because of the anonymity of services such as Tor, it is even further unclear how much traffic is actually flowing to any given site. Just as criminals can rely upon the anonymity of the Dark Web, so too can the law enforcement, military, and intelligence communities. They may, for example, use it to conduct online surveillance and sting operations and to maintain anonymous tip lines. Anonymity in the Dark Web can be used to shield officials from identification and hacking by adversaries. It can also be used to conduct a clandestine or covert computer network operation such as taking down a website or a denial of service attack, or to intercept communications. Reportedly, officials are continuously working on expanding techniques to deanonymize activity on the Dark Web and identify malicious actors online.

2015

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JOURNAL OF SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES, 2021

The elementary interest of every country is to maintain its inner security and stability. To achieve this goal the state must restrict within legal frameworks some fundamental rights of its own citizens. One of these fundamental rights is the right to privacy that can be breached only under certain circumstances. It is easy to see that it is unacceptable for a state not to control within the legal frameworks the communication of its own citizens so they can commit crimes, run terrorist rings, or spy rings or establish drug cartels without any consequences. Of course, the control over the communication is not the only means of the successful investigation but undeniably a vital one. That is why the Janus faced nature of the Dark Web is a real security risk nowadays. Although this new medium is the fruit of the last two decades its presence today is stronger than ever before and its popularity is growing day by day. Its most important features are anonymity, hidden geolocation and freedom from censorship. The Dark Web is very useful when it provides anonymity for political dissidents and whistleblowers, but is very harmful when it provides the same features for arm and drug traffickers and terrorists not to mention for pedophiles and so on. This article aims to shed some light on the effects of the Dark Web on the security and economy of the states especially in the aspects of organized crime and the terrorism.

2018

With the growth of the post-9/11 national counter-terror apparatus and as digital systems became more ubiquitous in Americans’ daily lives, the U.S. government engaged in unprecedented forms of mass surveillance during the first two decades of the 21st century. Since 2004, users have been able to download the Tor web browser, an anonymity-granting technology, allowing them to avoid government and commercial surveillance as well as to access content on the deep web. While existing research has shown that Tor is most likely to be downloaded in countries with very high and very low levels of political repression, little is known about the social conditions that produce interest in Tor within the United States. This study examines the issue attention cycles, socio-political conditions, and state-level industry composition associated with public interest in the Tor browser in the U.S. Using data at the state-year level from 2006-2015, this study examines whether social conditions (includ...

Global Crime, 2020

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The development of the Internet and related communication technologies has had a transformative effect upon social, political, economic, and cultural life. It has also facilitated the emergence of a wide range of crimes that take shape in the spaces of virtual communication. These offenses include technology-oriented crimes such as hacking and the distribution of malicious software; property-oriented crimes such as media piracy, theft, and fraud; and interpersonal offenses such as stalking, harassment, and sexual abuse. In many instances, these crimes serve to entrench and exacerbate existing patterns of victimization, vulnerability, and inequality, along lines of difference related to gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, and income. The anonymized and globally distributed nature of the Internet creates huge challenges for crime prevention, detection, and prosecution of online offenses.

The internet plays a contributory role in radicalisation, but is only one of a number of mechanisms currently deployed to win recruits to global jihad. Technical regulation of online content is difficult and may be counter-productive, driving forums deeper underground or alienating users. Tim Stevens argues that adopting a social approach that educates and empowers online communities could have more success.

Efe Kerem Sözeri is a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and is writing his dissertation on Turkish migrants' political behaviors in Europe and Turkey. He received his MA degree from the same institution where he completed his thesis with a two-year scholarship. In addition to his academic work, Efe writes about press freedoms and censorship for the Daily Dot, Vocativ, and Global Voices in English; P24 and Bianet in Turkish, and TAZ in German.

This study examines critically the nature of the Internet in relation to its facility for committing crimes. It discovers that the Internet is open, user-controlled, global, decentralized, inexpensive, abundant, interactive, and makes use of independent infrastructure. All these features are combined to form the medium’s transnational nature that challenges ordinary traditional regulatory platforms. It is also found that with increasing over dependence on computer systems within the global Internet network, the incidence of cyber criminality is significantly on the rise. Yet, the processes of investigation and prosecution of suspects are greatly hindered as a result of the amoeboid nature of cyberspace which makes it difficult to locate suspects and their conducts. The paper advocates progress in more sophisticated technology that would aid easy identification of suspects, constant review of cyber laws, and increased public enlightenment on the operations of the Internet. Doctrinal and critical approaches were employed in the study.