What is Tor?

The Tor project is a non-profit organisation that conducts research and development into online privacy and anonymity. It is designed to stop people – including government agencies and corporations – learning your location or tracking your browsing habits.Based on that research, it offers a technology that bounces internet users' and websites' traffic through "relays" run by thousands of volunteers around the world, making it extremely hard for anyone to identify the source of the information or the location of the user. Its software package – the Tor browser bundle – can be downloaded and used to take advantage of that technology, with a separate version available for Android smartphones. The original technology behind Tor was developed by the US navy and has received about 60% of its funding from the State Department and Department of Defense.Only 10% of the network we call “the internet” is visible to the general public. Hidden below the virtual waterline lies a tangled and secretive network known as the Deep Web. Unindexed by search engines, and accessible only with special browsers such as The Onion Router (Tor), the Deep Web is made up of peer-to-peer connections, which allow users to share files directly (and secretly).

Crypto Currency

Cryptocurrency is an internet-based medium of exchange which uses cryptographical functions to conduct financial transactions. Cryptocurrencies leverage blockchain technology to gain decentralization, transparency, and immutability.The most important feature of a cryptocurrency is that it is not controlled by any central authority: the decentralized nature of the blockchain makes cryptocurrencies theoretically immune to the old ways of government control and interference.Cryptocurrencies can be sent directly between two parties via the use of private and public keys. These transfers can be done with minimal processing fees, allowing users to avoid the steep fees charged by traditional financial institutions.The most famous cryptocurrency is Bitcoin.Bitcoin is a currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Transactions are made with no middle men – meaning, no banks! Bitcoin can be used to book hotels on Expedia, shop for furniture on Overstock and buy Xbox games. But much of the hype is about getting rich by trading it. The price of bitcoin skyrocketed into the thousands in 2017.Bitcoins can be used to buy merchandise anonymously. In addition, international payments are easy and cheap because bitcoins are not tied to any country or subject to regulation. Small businesses may like them because there are no credit card fees. Some people just buy bitcoins as an investment, hoping that they’ll go up in value.

What Is the Dark Web?

The dark web refers to encrypted online content that is not indexed by conventional search engines. Sometimes, the dark web is also called the dark net. The dark web is a component of the deep web that describes the wider breadth of content that does not appear through regular Internet browsing activities. Most deep web content consists of private files hosted on Dropbox and its competitors or subscriber-only databases rather than anything illegal. Specific browsers, such as Tor Browser, are required to reach the dark web. Using the dark web often provides considerably more privacy than just using Tor to access the web. Many dark web sites simply provide standard web services with more secrecy, which benefits political dissidents and people trying to keep medical conditions private. Unfortunately, online marketplaces for drugs, exchanges for stolen data, and other illegal activities get most of the attention. The Mariana’s web is the deepest and darkest level of the world wide web. Most online users will never reach or access the dark web. In fact, many people aren’t even aware of the existence of the deep web, most only have a vague idea of it being a hidden and uninteresting place for trading illegal good and services, child pornography, and other disgusting things.

Computer Forensics

Computer forensics is its own brand of forensics using investigative processes to collect, analyze and present digital evidence for legal proceedings. Sometimes called ''cyber forensics,'' these digital and computer-based techniques can often provide the evidence necessary to solve a crime. Computer forensics experts use a variety of software and other applications to retrieve, identify and extract data, even data that has been hidden or deleted, and then offer their report or interpretation of the data collected. Digital evidence on computers can be challenging to work with. While some of it may be visible, a good portion of a computer forensic expert's work is involved in discovering latent or hidden data inside a computer's systems. Whether out in the open or hidden, the process of computer forensics is the same: collect, analyze and present the digital data discovered.

Dark Net

In the 1970s, shortly after the creation of the Internet forerunner, ARPANET was developed by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a number of isolated, secretive networks begin to appear, giving rise to the term “darknet.” TOR, which is an acronym for its original project name, The Onion Routing project, was developed in the mid-1990s by United States Naval Research Laboratory as a way of protecting U.S. intelligence communications online. But it also has another natural constituency, those wanting to browse the darknet. In 2009 the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin, a form of untraceable cryptocurrency. Unlike previous digital currencies that failed because of security issues with hackers literally copying money, Bitcoin uses of an innovative public accounting ledger, the block chain, to prevent double spending. In 2011 a popular blog publishes an exposé on Silk Road, a clandestine marketplace that “makes buying and selling illegal drugs as easy as buying used electronics.” Silk Road was like Amazon.com, only for crystal meth and LSD, a service available to Tor users with Bitcoin accounts. As a result, traffic to Silk Road surged, and the value of a Bitcoin jumps from around $10 to more than $30 within days. In 2013 the FBI sets up a sting operation and shuts down Silk Road with the arrest of its founder Ross William Ulbricht. In 2 years, Silk Road had done $1.2 billion in sales. Instantly a number of other sites sprung up to fill the void.

TOR
Crypto Currency
Dark Web
Computer Forensics
A Little Darknet Knowledge