Imagine an iceberg drifting in a cold sea. What is visible above the surface of the water is a small part of a natural structure. The main part cannot be noticed without special preparation: you will need, at a minimum, diving equipment and overflowing courage. The Internet is also a kind of iceberg, where familiar sites like drweb.ru are just its tip, while exotic content lies deep under the water. In today’s issue of Antivirus Pravda we’ll talk about the “underwater”, shadow part of the Internet - the darknet - and the dangers that await there.
Simply put, the shadow Internet is a set of resources that are impossible to visit without special software. The darknet uses its own domain systems, and its sites are not indexed in the popular search engines Yandex or Google.
Some may have the impression of a high level of anonymity on the darknet, but the reality is a little different. Intelligence agencies regularly find new methods of de-anonymization: browser exploits, monitoring systems, and even calculations based on fonts. To remain unnoticed on the shadow Internet, you need to follow special rules, but even in this case, no one can guarantee complete anonymity.
Law enforcement agencies are closely monitoring the trade of illegal goods on the darknet. You never know exactly who is selling and buying in the “shadow”: a real criminal or an intelligence officer. For example, an undercover police officer can open a store on the darknet in order to easily find out the addresses of customers. In this case, lovers of illegal products will wait for law enforcement officers instead of the long-awaited product.
The fault lies with traders and distributors of illegal content. There are many hacker forums hidden under .onion. There, cybercriminals can feel a little more relaxed. For greater security of transactions, they use Bitcoin wallets as a means of payment, tracking transactions for which is not the easiest task.
The darknet is not only a collection of villainous forums and trading platforms, as the media portrays it. There are also quite familiar sites, such as Facebook. The presence of a representative office of such a large company on the “dark internet” only means that some prejudices should be thrown out of your head.
A logical question arises: “why then discuss the darknet at all, if in general everything is good there and there are normal sites?” Of course, if everything were so smooth, we would not write about this part of the Internet, but there are many real dangers of the darknet, which Dr.Web will help you cope with.
A classic example of marketplace fraud on the darknet: a cybercriminal creates a simple website, adds a bunch of different types of equipment there at obviously lower prices than the market average. A trusting user enters bank card data, delivery address, phone number, email and a bunch of other “important” information into the purchase form to place an order. As you might guess, no goods will be sent, and the money will not be returned. Moreover, the “leaked” data will add to the already large databases of scammers.
Also, while downloading a file, there is a possibility of infecting your computer with malware: miners, stealers and clippers will be especially dangerous in the context of the darknet. The fact is that the main means of payment on the “dark Internet” is cryptocurrency, which means there is a risk of compromising the data of an electronic payment wallet.
In general, the list of dangers on the darknet is the same as on regular sites. An antivirus alone while surfing is not enough - Dr.Web products cannot monitor .onion pages and add them to non-recommended pages, so users need to independently monitor the content they consume. Otherwise, the antivirus will work in the same way as during regular Internet surfing - it will not allow malicious programs to run on the computer.
It is also important to independently protect children from the hidden side of the Internet. Parental control does not work on the darknet, although, most likely, a child of primary school age will not be able to “set up” a connection to the shadow Internet, and if he gets there, he will not find anything dangerous - sites with inappropriate content are hidden from ordinary people.
(c) https://www.drweb.ru/pravda/issue/?number=1199
What is the darknet
Darknet (shadow Internet) is a generalized name for network resources for anonymous communication, trading and file sharing. Have you often come across sites on the Internet with an unusual top-level domain: .onion or .i2p? When you try to go to such a page, a regular browser will say that the website is unavailable, but it is very interesting to find out what is hidden there. Almost every site with such a postscript in the address bar is part of the darknet. This is a special marking that makes a web page accessible only from certain browsers with enhanced security and anonymity measures.Simply put, the shadow Internet is a set of resources that are impossible to visit without special software. The darknet uses its own domain systems, and its sites are not indexed in the popular search engines Yandex or Google.
Some may have the impression of a high level of anonymity on the darknet, but the reality is a little different. Intelligence agencies regularly find new methods of de-anonymization: browser exploits, monitoring systems, and even calculations based on fonts. To remain unnoticed on the shadow Internet, you need to follow special rules, but even in this case, no one can guarantee complete anonymity.
Law enforcement agencies are closely monitoring the trade of illegal goods on the darknet. You never know exactly who is selling and buying in the “shadow”: a real criminal or an intelligence officer. For example, an undercover police officer can open a store on the darknet in order to easily find out the addresses of customers. In this case, lovers of illegal products will wait for law enforcement officers instead of the long-awaited product.
What is inside
The bulk of pages on the darknet are all kinds of shops, forums with illegal information and other websites that have no place on the “regular” Internet. First of all, the darknet is known for its largest marketplaces. A variety of things and services are bought and sold on the dark web. Contrary to popular stereotypes, you can buy quite ordinary goods there - the same as in regular online stores. Then, it would seem, why does the darknet need increased security measures, and where do horror stories about this “terrible” place come from?The fault lies with traders and distributors of illegal content. There are many hacker forums hidden under .onion. There, cybercriminals can feel a little more relaxed. For greater security of transactions, they use Bitcoin wallets as a means of payment, tracking transactions for which is not the easiest task.
The darknet is not only a collection of villainous forums and trading platforms, as the media portrays it. There are also quite familiar sites, such as Facebook. The presence of a representative office of such a large company on the “dark internet” only means that some prejudices should be thrown out of your head.
A logical question arises: “why then discuss the darknet at all, if in general everything is good there and there are normal sites?” Of course, if everything were so smooth, we would not write about this part of the Internet, but there are many real dangers of the darknet, which Dr.Web will help you cope with.
Why is it dangerous
In fact, it is just as dangerous here as on public sites, except for the higher concentration of scammers who are happy to deceive not only random visitors, but also each other.A classic example of marketplace fraud on the darknet: a cybercriminal creates a simple website, adds a bunch of different types of equipment there at obviously lower prices than the market average. A trusting user enters bank card data, delivery address, phone number, email and a bunch of other “important” information into the purchase form to place an order. As you might guess, no goods will be sent, and the money will not be returned. Moreover, the “leaked” data will add to the already large databases of scammers.
Also, while downloading a file, there is a possibility of infecting your computer with malware: miners, stealers and clippers will be especially dangerous in the context of the darknet. The fact is that the main means of payment on the “dark Internet” is cryptocurrency, which means there is a risk of compromising the data of an electronic payment wallet.
In general, the list of dangers on the darknet is the same as on regular sites. An antivirus alone while surfing is not enough - Dr.Web products cannot monitor .onion pages and add them to non-recommended pages, so users need to independently monitor the content they consume. Otherwise, the antivirus will work in the same way as during regular Internet surfing - it will not allow malicious programs to run on the computer.
It is also important to independently protect children from the hidden side of the Internet. Parental control does not work on the darknet, although, most likely, a child of primary school age will not be able to “set up” a connection to the shadow Internet, and if he gets there, he will not find anything dangerous - sites with inappropriate content are hidden from ordinary people.
(c) https://www.drweb.ru/pravda/issue/?number=1199
