The Dark Web #

Internet routing #

• The ideal: anarchism; “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”
• In reality: a few centralized providers maintain infrastructure for all internet communications
  • A LOT of traffic flows through the US
  • NSA saw this as an opportunity for surveillance
• Also: China’s censorship is extremely effective!
  • Can do blocking on traffic that leaves Chinese servers
  • A solution has been to use VPNs, though blocking tech has gotten better

The Onion Router (TOR) #

• Web browser that communicates (encrypted) with a series of nodes that forward traffic, eventually to exit node and to unencrypted open internet
• TOR is in an arms race with the PRC; PRC tries to shut down TOR access

.onion services #

• Traffic encrypted in layers, each node in the network removes a layer of encryption
• Example: The Silk Road, online drug marketplace
  • This got shut down by the FBI in 2013