Shedding light on the dark side of web
An uncensored blend of good, bad and ugly, the Darknet is going mainstream as more Indians log on anonymously to get access to a freewheeling collection of everything illegal
People
set up virtual private networks (VPNs) cloaking their location. It used to be
100% coders, but now 70% people are coders and 30% normal folks. RAHUL SASI,
co-founder of Machine (Internet security company that monitors the dark web)
NEW
DELHI: For years, one needed to be a hacker to enter the dark web, a shadowy
part of the internet so shrouded in secrecy that it was accessible only through
special browsers and untraceable even by the world’s most sophisticated
security agencies.
Not anymore. Once considered the sole domain
of hackers, coders and black marketeers, the deep web can now be cracked by
anyone within minutes. Thousands, even in India, are surfing the web’s dark
underbelly at any given time, shopping for drugs, guns, and prescription pills.
Posing as an eager buyer for a variety of
products, including drugs such as heroin, prescription pills such as
anti-anxiety medication Xanax and weapons such as guns, this correspondent went
on to dark web marketplaces such as Alpha Bay, UK Guns, and Drug Marketplace.
These websites require invites that used to be difficult to come by. However,
in 2016, these invite links are available on websites like Paste Bin that can
be found even through an elementary Google search.
On a site that looked like E-Bay, buyers rate
sellers by ‘trust level’’ — speed of delivery, quantity and quality of
products. Some of the shops that shipped to India had stellar reviews. A
customer named COX50 said of one shop: “Best H (heroin) I’ve ever got off the
net.”
Secure in their online anonymity, sellers
converse easily and openly with buyers. “Thank you for thinking of us. Yes, we
ship H to India, no limit on the buy. Please do not hesitate to ask any
questions,” one of the shops replied to a query. It wouldn’t be their first
time, they added.
According to Tor, a software maker whose
browser is used to access the Darknet, more than 20,000 Indian use it daily.
But, the company counts only direct connections to its servers.
“People also set up virtual private networks
(VPNs) cloaking their location. So, this number is indicative of the Darknet’s
popularity in India,” said Rahul Sasi, cofounder of Machine, an internet
security company that monitors the dark web.
Heroin is “sent in small packages” in “the
safest way of shipping,” the shop assured. “It takes 5-10 days to ship to
India. The seller revealed they use snail mail that one “would not have to sign
for.”
This method would be nearly undetectable by
customs officials, said additional commissioner of customs, Vinayak Azaad, who
has been working in contraband control since 1994.
Azaad said sniffer dogs were of limited use.
“They only sniff for one thing at a time. At airports, it is explosives,
weapons.” Even when dogs are trained to find narcotics, he added, “thousands of
packages come every day. Searches are random. So, unless the police has prior information,
it is very difficult to find the correct shipment.”
The Indian youth is no stranger to the dark
web either. “It used to be 100% coders, but now 70% people are coders and 30%
normal folks,” said Sasi.
“Last year I ordered some blotters (LSD) from
it. The package came in a week —a CD with my drugs packed inside,” a
23-year-old banker said.
But the Darknet has its brighter side, too.
During the Arab Spring – the Tunisian mass
uprising that sparked similar revolutions in other countries — activists used
Tor to anonymously pass on messages. Political dissidents and journalists
across the world have also been using Darknet to cover digital tracks to escape
persecution by oppressive regimes.
Earlier this year, Facebook told a technology
news portal that a million of its users accessed the social media network
through Tor.
“Women use Tor to research family planning
info while domestic violence survivors browse the web while staying anonymous
and untracked by former or current abusers,” a Tor spokesperson said.
However, it is difficult to control the dark
web. In 2013, after a drug market called Silk Road was busted, many sites
cropped up in its place, some even by the same name. The website’s founder Ross
Ulbricht is serving life sentence for murder in the US. Similarly, child
pornography sites such as Pedo Empire continue to operate chatrooms and serve
content despite its founder Mattew David Graham being jailed in Austrailia
since March 2016.
“It’s about demand and supply. If you take
away the moral angle, this is capitalism at its purest,” said digital
ethnographer Angad Chowdhry.
A Glock-17 semi-automatic pistol and
ammunition could be purchased for $500, a gun seller on the dark web said.
Glocks are legally priced at $590 with $100 per magazines. For prescription
pill dealers, three out of four sellers list India as country of origin. Drugs
such as Tramadol, which are legal in India but banned in the US and other
countries are big moneymakers.
“It is very difficult to book people
(carrying prescription pills) under the Customs Act except for carrying
commercial quantities…. (but) there is no hard and fast rule for that (what
constitutes a commercial quantity),” Azad said.
Cybercrime is big business in India.
According to a report filed by Delhi Police, cyber crimes cost India `24,630
crore in 2013. “Criminals have always been more savvy than law enforcement
agencies and in this day of digitalisation, there’s scope for improvement in
technology given to police,” said Azad. In the meantime, crooks have never had
it so easy.
Source | Hindustan Times | 15 September
2016
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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