Re: [tor-talk] What is the weirdest/creepiest thing you have found on the dark web?

[Conrad Rockenhaus <conrad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just adding a little on to this, when I was in the Navy stationed at a
Joint Command, there were certain situations which communications,
access to hidden services we ran, and access to the Internet required
the use of Tor. When I was attached to a particular Naval Security
Command, we conducted communications experiments with Tor under the
guidance of a sponsoring Laboratory and a Command that was interested
in the technology. I got into relays because of that, but the point is
I never realized that there was a dark side of Tor until someone I saw
it on the news one day.

I don't feel that Tor should really be tainted with the name "Dark
Web" because of all of the positive uses of the technology - from
dissidents, to governments, to journalists, to just end users that
want to protect their privacy. "Dark Web" has a bad connotation and
confuses uninformed users with the true intent of Tor. The actions of
a few (a few drug hidden services that are getting shut down, etc.)
shouldn't taint the actions of the many.

On Sun, Apr 7, 2019 at 9:01 PM Roger Dingledine <arma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Apr 07, 2019 at 09:19:11PM -0400, Seth Caldwell wrote:
> > I know the dark web can be a terrible place, with content not suitable for
> > anyone, basically. Like illegal drug cartel, fake passports/IDs,creepy
> > websites, and generally all around messed up stuff. If you feel comfortable
> > talking about your experiences. Then, please reply to this Message.
>
> I'm increasingly realizing that when "threat intelligence" companies
> talk about the dark web, they mean anything on the internet that they
> think you should be scared of.
>
> For example, I talk to a growing number of CTOs from these threat
> intelligence companies, and the recurring pattern is that they explain
> that their marketing people need to say "oooo dark web" to feel like
> they're being competitive, but actually almost all of their useful
> material comes from watching paste sites like pastebin.
>
> So increasingly, when I hear somebody breathlessly asking me about all
> the spooky stuff on the internet, I wonder what that has to do with Tor,
> that is, why they are asking Tor.
>
> Or taking a step back: when they say dark web, are they talking about
> (A) websites on the internet that are reachable via Tor onion services,
> (B) websites on the internet that have bad stuff on them, or
> (C) websites on the internet that you need to log in to before you can
> read the content?
>
> There was a time a while ago where I think people meant 'A', but nowadays
> it seems everybody means 'B' or 'C'. There are a wide variety of websites
> in Russia (i.e. that end in .ru) or Malaysia (.my) with all of those
> things you mentioned plus more. And of course there is some overlap
> between the three categories, but I think the overlap is a lot smaller
> than people think, and certainly a lot smaller than the "oooo dark web"
> hollywood tv shows want to imply.
>
> For my most recent discussions about the dark web, and trying to get
> some actual facts around it, see minutes 36-44 of the FOSDEM 2019 video:
> https://fosdem.org/2019/schedule/event/tor_project/
>
> Hope this helps,
> --Roger
>
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-- 
Conrad Rockenhaus
https://www.rockenhaus.com
Cell: (254) 292-3350
Fax: (254) 875-0459
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