Darknet
Beyond the familiar websites and search engines of the 'surface web' lies a hidden realm of the internet known as the darknet — a network within a network, accessible only through specialized tools. Far from being a monolithic entity, the darknet encompasses a fascinating array of purposes, from protecting privacy to facilitating illicit activities. Join us as we explore the veiled layers of this often-misunderstood digital space. The term 'darknet' originated from early ARPANET computers that could receive data but remained hidden, evolving to describe encrypted, private overlay networks. Darknets primarily serve to provide anonymity, security, or censorship resistance, protecting digital rights for journalists, activists, and ordinary users. Despite common misconceptions, the 'darknet' is distinct from the 'dark web' and the 'deep web,' each referring to different aspects of online hidden content.
AI Summary
Beyond the familiar websites and search engines of the 'surface web' lies a hidden realm of the internet known as the darknet — a network within a network, accessible only through specialized tools. Far from being a monolithic entity, the darknet encompasses a fascinating array of purposes, from protecting privacy to facilitating illicit activities. Join us as we explore the veiled layers of this often-misunderstood digital space.
- The term 'darknet' originated from early ARPANET computers that could receive data but remained hidden, evolving to describe encrypted, private overlay networks.
- Darknets primarily serve to provide anonymity, security, or censorship resistance, protecting digital rights for journalists, activists, and ordinary users.
- Despite common misconceptions, the 'darknet' is distinct from the 'dark web' and the 'deep web,' each referring to different aspects of online hidden content.
What is a Darknet?
Imagine a secret handshake or a special key required just to enter a particular club. That's essentially how a darknet works: it's an overlay network operating within the larger Internet, but you can only access it with specific software, configurations, or even unique authorization. Think of it as a private digital world, hidden in plain sight.
These networks often employ customized communication protocols to maintain their separation and security. While many associate the term 'darknet' with illicit activities — largely due to media attention surrounding platforms like Silk Road — their core technologies were developed with very different goals in mind: to defend digital rights, provide anonymity, and resist censorship.
A History of 'Darkness'
The term 'darknet' actually has roots stretching back to the early days of the internet's predecessor, ARPANET. In that era, 'darknet' described computers within the network that were intentionally hidden. These machines were programmed to receive messages, but they wouldn't respond or acknowledge anything, effectively rendering them invisible and 'in the dark' to other systems.
Over time, the concept evolved far beyond these initial hidden ARPANET nodes. Today, the term encompasses everything from friend-to-friend (F2F) networks, often used for private file sharing, to sophisticated privacy-enhancing networks like Tor. These networks prioritize anonymity and secure communication, offering a stark contrast to the easily searchable 'clearnet' or 'surface web' that most of us interact with daily.
Clearing Up the Confusion: Darknet vs. Dark Web vs. Deep Web
It's easy to get lost in the terminology, as 'darknet,' 'dark web,' and 'deep web' are often used interchangeably — but they shouldn't be. The 'darknet' is the underlying network itself, requiring specific software like Tor to access. The 'dark web' refers to content found within these darknets, such as 'hidden services' on Tor's network.
Meanwhile, the 'deep web' is a much broader category. It simply refers to any content on the internet that isn't indexed by standard search engines. This includes your online banking portal, private cloud storage, or even password-protected sections of a website — the vast majority of the internet, in fact, which is not inherently sinister.
Microsoft's Contribution to the Term
The term gained significant public acceptance in the early 2000s, largely due to a paper titled 'The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution' published by four Microsoft employees. They argued that the existence of such 'darknets' was the primary obstacle to effective digital rights management (DRM) and made copyright infringement inevitable.
This paper broadened the definition of 'darknet' to include any parallel network, encrypted or otherwise, that requires a specific protocol to connect. This highlighted the growing challenge of controlling digital content in an increasingly interconnected and anonymous online world.
Beyond Technology: Cultural Implications
Journalists and authors have also explored the darknet's broader societal impact. J. D. Lasica, in his 2005 book 'Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation,' linked it to file-sharing networks and the clash between content creators and consumers. Later, Jamie Bartlett's 2014 book 'The Dark Net' delved into the diverse subcultures thriving within these hidden spaces.
Bartlett's work illuminated a wide range of communities, from crypto-anarchists and transhumanists to more controversial groups involved in darknet markets and self-harm communities. This showed that darknets are not just technological constructs, but vibrant, albeit often hidden, social ecosystems.
The Gateway: Essential Software
To step into a darknet, you need specific tools. The most famous example is Tor, short for 'The Onion Router.' To access it, users typically download a customized browser, like the Tor Browser Bundle, which configures a proxy to route your internet traffic through a global network of relays, obscuring your identity and location.
While Tor is by far the most popular and well-known darknet, it's not the only one. Other networks like I2P (Invisible Internet Project) and Freenet also exist, each with its own approach to providing anonymity and censorship resistance. These tools represent a crucial frontier in the ongoing battle for online privacy and freedom of expression.
Article
Darknet
Surface web in relation to deep web and dark web
A darknet or dark net is an overlay network within the Internet that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations, or authorization, and often uses a unique customized communication protocol. Two typical darknet types are social networks (usually used for file hosting with a peer-to-peer connection), and anonymity proxy networks such as Tor via an anonymized series of connections.
The term darknet was popularized by major news outlets and was associated with Tor Onion services when the infamous drug bazaar Silk Road used it, despite the terminology being unofficial. Technology such as Tor, I2P, and Freenet are intended to defend digital rights by providing security, anonymity, or censorship resistance and are used for both illegal and legitimate reasons. Anonymous communication between whistle-blowers, activists, journalists and news organisations is also facilitated by darknets through use of applications such as SecureDrop.
Terminology
Darknet
Euler diagram of the deep web, the dark web, and the darknet
The term originally described computers on ARPANET that were hidden, programmed to receive messages but not respond to or acknowledge anything, thus remaining invisible and in the dark.
Since ARPANET, the usage of dark net has expanded to include friend-to-friend networks (usually used for file sharing with a peer-to-peer connection) and privacy networks such as Tor. The reciprocal term for a darknet is a clearnet or the surface web when referring to content indexable by search engines.
The term darknet is often used interchangeably with dark web because of the quantity of hidden services on Tor's darknet. Additionally, the term is often inaccurately used interchangeably with the deep web because of Tor's history as a platform that could not be search-indexed. Mixing uses of both these terms has been described as inaccurate, with some commentators recommending the terms be used in distinct fashions.
Origins
Darknet
Darknet was coined in the 1970s to designate networks isolated from ARPANET (the government-founded military/academical network which evolved into the Internet), for security purposes. Darknet addresses could receive data from ARPANET but did not appear in the network lists and would not answer pings or other inquiries.
The term gained public acceptance following publication of "The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution", a 2002 paper by Peter Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado, and Bryan Willman, four employees of Microsoft who argued the presence of the darknet was the primary hindrance to the development of workable digital rights management (DRM) technologies and made copyright infringement inevitable. This paper described darknet more generally as any type of parallel network that is encrypted or requires a specific protocol to allow a user to connect to it.
Sub-cultures
Journalist J. D. Lasica, in his 2005 book Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation, described the darknet's reach encompassing file sharing networks. Subsequently, in 2014, journalist Jamie Bartlett in his book The Dark Net used the term to describe a range of underground and emergent subcultures, including camgirls, cryptoanarchists, darknet drug markets, self harm communities, social media racists, and transhumanists.
Uses
Darknet
Darknets in general may be used for various reasons, such as:
• To better protect the privacy rights of citizens from targeted and mass surveillance • Computer crime (cracking, file corruption, etc.) • Protecting dissidents from political reprisal • File sharing (warez, personal files, pornography, confidential files, illegal or counterfeit software, etc.) • Sale of restricted goods on darknet markets • Whistleblowing and news leaks • Purchase or sale of illicit or illegal goods or services • Circumventing network censorship and content-filtering systems, or bypassing restrictive firewall policies
Software
Darknet
All darknets require specific software installed or network configurations made to access them, such as Tor, which can be accessed via a customized browser from Vidalia (aka the Tor browser bundle), or alternatively via a proxy configured to perform the same function.
Active
Tor is the most popular instance of a darknet, and it is often mistakenly thought to be the only online tool that facilitates access to darknets.
A cartogram illustrating the average number of Tor users per day in 2015
• anoNet is a decentralized friend-to-friend network built using VPN and software BGP routers. • Decentralized network 42 (not for anonymity but research purposes). • Freenet is a popular DHT file hosting darknet platform. It supports friend-to-friend and opennet modes. • GNUnet can be utilized as a darknet if the "F2F (network) topology" option is enabled. • I2P (Invisible Internet Project) is an overlay proxy network that features hidden services called "Eepsites". • IPFS has a browser extension that may backup popular webpages. • RetroShare is a friend-to-friend messenger communication and file transfer platform. It may be used as a darknet if DHT and Discovery features are disabled. • Riffle is a government, client-server darknet system that simultaneously provides secure anonymity (as long as at least one server remains uncompromised), efficient computation, and minimal bandwidth burden. • Secure Scuttlebutt is a peer-to peer communication protocol, mesh network, and self-hosted social media ecosystem. • Syndie is software used to publish distributed forums over the anonymous networks of I2P, Tor and Freenet. • Tor (The onion router) is an anonymity network that also features a darknet – via its onion services. • Tribler is an anonymous BitTorrent client with built in search engine, and non-web, worldwide publishing through channels. • Urbit is a federated system of personal servers in a peer-to-peer overlay network. • Zeronet is a DHT Web 2.0 hosting with Tor users.
No longer supported
• StealthNet (discontinued) • WASTE
Defunct
• AllPeers • Turtle F2F