The Dark Web

An Introduction to Internet Site Classification

 Chip Thornsburg

Law Enforcement Tech Background Education

Detective – Helotes Police Dept. 1981 – 1st Computer Network Hack Associate’s Degrees:
Since 2011 1983 – Comodore 64 Hardware Hack Management
Electronic Crimes Task Force 1985 – Timex / Sinclair Simulator Criminal Justice / LE
Since 2013
1994 – Hacking BBS Bachelor’s Degree:
950+ Hours of Electronic Crimes
Continuing Education from: 1996 – 1st Computer Company Criminology
USSS 2008 – Adjunct Professor
Master’s Degree:
2010 – Technology Dept. Chair
MITRE MBA / Marketing
2012 – Alamo Cyber Security
NCFI
2016 – Speaker @ NOLAcon
FBI / DHS
2018 – Volunteer Texas Cyber Summit
 Learning Objectives

Students will be able to…

• Distinguish between Dark Web, Deep Web and Surface Web Sites
• Define the TOR acronym
• Classify Internet Applications between Dark, Deep or Surface use
 History of the Internet

• 1960s – 1970s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) sponsored a

project to interconnect computer networks known as ARPAnet
• 1983 ARPAnet adopted the TCP/IP transmission protocol
• 1990 Tim Berners-Lee released the World Wide Web
 How Big is the Internet?

8.3
Zettabytes

How large is a Zettabyte?

270 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes One Billion Terabytes
 Only 4% of the Internet
is readily accessible

DEEP WEB NETWORKS

NIPRnet
SIPRnet
GOVnet
VPNs
 The Dark Web

The Onion Router (TOR)

Anonymizing relay
network using private
individuals and networks

TOR sites are characterized by randomized text with a “.onion” extension

The Dream Market: http://lchudifyeqm4ldjj.onion
 How TOR Works

Node 3
TOR User

TOR Exit Node

Node 1
Node 2
Deep Web and Dark Web Navigation
Dark Web Applications
The TOR Browser is used to access .onion sites

TOR Chat allows users to use the TOR Network for peer to peer chat

Onion Mail service uses PGP Encryption along with

TOR network routing.
 SUMMARY

• 3 Internet Traffic Classifications: Surface Web, Deep Web and Dark Web
• Accessing Dark Web requires specialized browsing software: TOR Browser
• TOR – The Onion Router, anonymizing and encrypting private relay network
 References

• Andrews, E. (2013, December 18). Who Invented the Internet. Retrieved from The History Channel:
https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet
• KALI Tools. (2018, December 17). Retrieved from KALI: https://tools.kali.org/tools-listing
• Slaughter, A.-M. (2019, February 26). Global Government Networks. Retrieved from Michigan Journal
of International Law: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjil/vol24/iss4/7/
• Tarquin. (2019, February 18). How to Access Notorious Dark Web Anonymously. Retrieved from Dark
Web News: https://darkwebnews.com/help-advice/access-dark-web/
• TOR Browser Bundle. (2019, February 25). Retrieved from The TOR Project:
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en