The Dark Web: What’s New?

Even if you haven’t heard of the term “dark web”, you can probably discern that it’s not a great place to be. 

This anonymous, virtually untraceable area of the internet makes it ripe for illegal activity. 

When you surf the internet, you’re just scratching the surface. “Only about 5% of the internet is actually indexed by search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing,”said Justin Yapp, a PhD student studying cyber security. The other 95% is the “deep web,” with most of the internet unreachable for search engines.

The dark web is an even smaller and more hidden chunk and requires special software — like Tor, which stands for “the onion router.” The name comes from the layers of encryption, which are like the layers of an onion. The information bounces from computer to computer around the world, peeling off encrypted layers until it reaches its destination. It’s anonymous and virtually untraceable — even for law enforcement. “There’s a lot of illegal activity that goes on,” Yapp said. The dark web is notorious for drugs, weapons, child porn and for selling stolen personal information.

Here’s what you should know about dark web websites:

There is bad stuff, and crackdowns means it’s harder to trust

Many dark web marketplaces for drugs and hacking services featured corporate-level customer service and customer reviews, making navigating simpler and safer for newbies. But now that law enforcement has begun to crack down, the experience is more dangerous. “The whole idea of this dark net marketplace, where people are able to review drugs that they’re buying from vendors and get up on a forum and say, ‘Yes, this is real’ or ‘No, this actually hurt me’—that’s been curtailed now that dark marketplaces have been taken offline,” says Radware’s Smith. There are still sites where drugs are reviewed, says Smith, but they have to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Also, many dark web drug manufacturers will also purchase pill presses and dyes, and create dangerous look-a-like drugs. “One of the more recent scares that I could cite would be Red Devil Xanax,” he said. “These were sold as some super Xanax bars, when in reality, they were nothing but horrible drugs designed to hurt you.”

Smith says that some traditional drug cartels make use of the dark web networks for distribution, “it takes away the middleman and allows the cartels to send from their own warehouses and distribute it if they want to. You know how there are lots of local IPA microbreweries?” he says. “We also have a lot of local micro-laboratories. In every city, there’s probably at least one kid that’s gotten smart and knows how to order drugs on the dark net, and make a small amount of drugs to sell to his local network.”

Not everything is for sale on the dark web

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about drugs here for a reason. Smith calls narcotics “the physical cornerstone” of the dark web; “cybercrime—selling exploits and vulnerabilities, web application attacks—that’s the digital cornerstone. Basically, I’d say a majority of the dark net is actually just drugs and kids talking about little crimes on forums.”

Some of the scarier sounding stuff you hear about being for sale is often just rumors. Firearms, for instance: as Smith puts it, “it would be easier for a criminal to purchase a gun in real life versus the internet. Going to the dark net is adding an extra step that isn’t necessary in the process. When you’re dealing with real criminals, they’re going to know someone that’s selling a gun.”

Some sites seem perfectly innocent

Matt Wilson, chief information security advisor at BTB Security, says “there is a tame/lame side to the dark web that would probably surprise most people. You can exchange some cooking recipes—with video!—send email, or read a book. People use the dark web for these benign things for a variety of reasons: a sense of community, avoiding surveillance or tracking of internet habits, or just to do something in a different way.”

Of course, not everything is so innocent, or else it wouldn’t be found on the dark web. Still, “you can’t just fire up your Tor browser and request 10,000 credit card records, or passwords to your neighbor’s webcam,” says Mukul Kumar, CISO and VP ofCyber Practice at Cavirin. “Most of the verified ‘sensitive’ data is only available to those that have been vetted or invited to certain groups.”

“There are alot of countries that block social media,” Yapp said. Even journalists working to spread content in countries where information is restricted, like China, use the dark web. “I would not recommend anybody go and try it unless they know what they’re doing,” Yapp said.

  About Us:

We have been mining social media since 2007 for our clients. By utilizing best in class software programs, we offer a service called eChatter.

eChatter works with you to obtain your objectives in a fast, accurate and reliable facet. By keeping our strengthened principals, yet evolving with this industry, we lead in social media monitoring. Since 2007, we have been dedicated to providing our customers with the most authentic data.  

We offer: Social Media Investigations             
 www.e-chatter.net 

Gangs on Social Media

When posting to any social media platform, it might help to think of all of it as potentially public. Remember that anyone can take a screenshot or copy and pass on your post without your knowledge.

gangs on social media

 

Is there anything you can’t find online? Apparently not.

In recent years, social media has faced scrutiny for live streaming of violent crimes, the tolerance of cyberbullying, and distribution of terrorist propaganda and recruitment. Now research suggests that gang members are also employing social media. Gang affiliates, typically adolescents and young adults, are now using their online presence to promote their gang identity and gain notoriety, in a phenomenon called “cyberbanging”.

Based on a keyword search of over 50 street gang names, the three main social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace) were monitored for street gang presence. Results show that criminal gangs are not proactively using the Internet to convert anyone into being gang members. Instead, social networking sites are creating a new venue for people who share or are sensitive to the values underlying street gang lifestyle to come together. These sites essentially create a new meeting space for gang members to interact with a wider number of people who would probably never have been exposed to their lifestyles and exploits through physical interactions.

Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09592318.2013.740232

Dr Simon Harding, a senior lecturer in criminology at Middlesex University, said: “We started noticing gangs using social media four years ago and since then [the numbers using it] have doubled every year … it’s hard to quantify that because there are no statistics or research, but every street gang I am familiar with now has an online presence,” he said.

Harding noted that a lot of gangs had websites and fan followings online. He expressed concern about young people being inadvertently drawn into violent activities after making contact with gangs over social media. Harding said gangs used social media differently depending on their aims but popular platforms included YouTube and Snapchat.

A survey of 137 adolescent gang members found that 74% reported using the internet to show or gain respect for their gang. For older, more established gangs, the Internet does not appear to be a tool that they use to further the interests of their group by recruiting members or promoting activities. Instead they use it to demonstrate and solidify gang status by watching videos of gang fights or posting taunts against competing gangs.

 

street gangs use social media

 

So what can we do?

One solution to the problem is education, according to Harding. He believes schools need to be made more aware of what is going on, so young people can be educated about gang websites. This is important to make sure they are not groomed for recruitment.

Criminology lecturer and youth worker, Craig Pinkney, said: “In terms of policy makers it’s about linking with the
police and having an understanding, not just blaming young people. We can’t just say they are becoming more violent on social media, ignoring the situations they face now – high unemployment, lack of opportunities and poor education. Youth violence and the number of people are becoming more extreme. If we just focus on gangs we miss out on a whole section of young people that are increasingly becoming more violent.”

“The government should consider funding programs that educate youth workers in social media because the scope has changed,” Pinkney told the Guardian. “If there is a fight outside school now, for example, the chances are that social media has been involved and we help professionals understand that,” he said.

Earlier this week, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, blamed social media for playing a part in youth violence. She told the Times that social media sites “rev people up” and trivial disputes could escalate into violence “within minutes” when rivals set out to goad each other on the internet. He shows clips of young people taunting each other through music videos and in social media posts and offers advice to youth workers about how they can protect young people from this.

“We are also currently developing a new serious violence strategy for early 2018 that is likely to set out further action for tackling gang-related violence”, Dick commented.

Operation Domain is an ongoing Metropolitan police project aimed at collating all the gang-related content from social media and working with Google to remove relevant videos and materials from YouTube.

 

About Us:

We have been mining social media since 2007 for our clients. By utilizing best in class software programs, we offer a service called eChatter.

eChatter works with you to obtain your objectives in a fast, accurate and reliable facet. By keeping our strengthened principals, yet evolving with this industry, we lead in social media monitoring. Since 2007, we have been dedicated to providing our customers with the most authentic data.

 

We offer:

·       Deep Web Scans

·       Jury Vetting

·       Jury Monitoring

·       Quick Scan

 

 

www.e-chatter.net

(866) 703-8238

 

#ThinkBeforeYouPost: FBI Warning

As more and more false alarms are popping up regarding school shootings and bomb threats, the FBI gets proactive in its defense of such action. Anyone thinking of pulling one of these hoaxes ought to think twice before doing so.

Wednesday, May 30, 2018, the FBI began a proactive social media campaign titled, #thinkbeforeyoupost. The statement the FBI issues includes:

“Making false threats drains law enforcement resources and cost taxpayers a lot of money,” a news release from the FBI states. “When an investigation concludes there was a false or hoax threat made to a school, or another public place, a federal charge could be considered, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. If a federal charge is not warranted, state charges can be considered.”

Using law enforcement officers to handle hoax threats takes them away from solving real crimes and is also a drain on the city’s budget.

 

 

social media investigations

 

If anyone is aware of any potential threats or suspicious activity, they are asked to call local authorities at 911, or contact the FBI via tips.fbi.gov or over the phone (1-800-CALL-FBI). The public can also call their nearest FBI field office or report a tip.

Equally important is Homeland Securities “If You See Something, Say Something®” campaign. Reporting suspicious activity in social media is very important. Be sure to contact your local law enforcement agency with details; such as who or what you saw, when you saw it, why you feel it is suspicious and where it occurred.