The Deep Web and Criminality

Why we chose the Deep Web as our topic?

• It's an incredibly unknown portion of the internet
• We all found an aspect that appealed to each of us of the Deep Web

Max- Criminality
Jasmine- Music Piracy
Hillary- Government Involvement

What is the Deep Web?

• The deep web is the vast content of the internet that is not indexed by standard search engines and consists of the following content types
• Dynamic Content-Which is content that unlike HTML can change text and image in real time
• Unlinked Content- Which is the content that is not linked to by other pages and is often missed by search engines
• Private Web- That requires registration and login
• Software- Certain content that is hidden from the standard web and can only be accessed with software like Tor

Criminal Enterprise on the Deep Web

• June 2011's Gawker article on the silk road brought public attention to deep web criminality as well as government action to stop these marketplaces
• Why the deep web? Anonymity! The Silk Road marketplace and sites like it operate as Tor hidden services, meaning that all incoming connections must go through Tor and the sites themselves don't show an IP address, which would be the most standard and effective way to locate someone. Rather the address is an "onion" address which is constantly bouncing the IP globally to various dedicated Tor servers. The takeaway for criminals is that you can create a functional online marketplace with almost complete anonymity
• The stock, the interface and the access
• The next generation
• The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by Joshua Bearman writing for Wired. Showcases something I find absolutely fascinating. Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road is surprisingly...average. He came from a middle class background and majored in Physics at the Univeristy of Texas at Dallas.
• Wait don't we have a government to combat problems like this? The Answer is yes and no. We have well funded agencies like the FBI and DEA but the crimes taking place on the deep web our cyber crimes which requires computer knowledge and training and that's exactly what is not happening.
• In Jay Newton-Smalls Times article (Why the Deep Web has Washington Worried) Chester Wisinieski, a senior information/technology security advisor for Sophos talked about how the FBI's cyber crimes division is woefully understaffed at around two-hundred people.
• But for the sites we take down others simply take there place. It's going to require an investment on the part of our government to see significant change.

Music Piracy

Real World Stories

• Where do privacy-rights advocates, drug buyers and sellers, and teenagers cross paths?
• What fallout and discussions result as the digital underworld meets the surface world?
• We see the discussion in New York Times articles about Ulbricht's trial; Daily Dot and Huffington Post stories about teens' Tumblr posts; and Carrie James' writings about ethics in a digital world.

Why this topic matters?

• With the revelation of the NSA's mass collection of meta-data, concerns revolving around privacy are current topics of contention and debate. The deep web provides a layer of privacy and anonymity in an era where the desire to have that protection is considered a fever dream and with the Supreme Court ruling that the mass collection of meta-data was illegal, having an option like tor and the deep web that is easily accessible is more important than ever.

What to expect in the future?

• What our government hasn't kept up to date with has been cyber crime. And that's the area where sites like the silk road and black market reloaded thrive. What we can expect is either an increase in the staffing and training of government agents and employs in tracking and curbing cyber crime or the continued deep web black market. What's certain is that this stalemate won't change without advancing our ability to combat crime in a digital space

Challenges & Rewards

• Working with audio is difficult.
• It's challenging to meet and present as a group, because we must coordinate work schedules and travel between different cities.
• Rewards: Like with other creations, it's neat to have a product you can look to later and, for the most part, smile because it's done, it's lasting, and you're proud of it. You can put it in your resume now.

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