UNDERNEATH THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG: THE DEEP WEB

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1 UNDERNEATH THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG: THE DEEP WEB Harshal N. Patel 1, Mrigank Shankar 2, Prof. Roshni Patel 3 1,2 B.Tech,Computer Engineering Department,Indus University 3 Assistant Professor,Computer Engineering Department,Indus University Abstract -Silk Road, the online drug market, was shut down by U.S. law enforcement officials by organizing a raid and the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, the site s alleged proprietor. According to a Justice Department release, Ulbricht, 29, was arrested in San Francisco and was subsequently presented in the San Francisco federal court the next day. Until that day, the person who ran the website was famously known only by his pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts. Furthermore, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized approximately $3.6 million in Bitcoin, making it the second biggest seizure in the digital currency s history. Ulbricht was charged with narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy by the Federal prosecutors in New York. According to a criminal complaint dated March 2013, Ulbricht was engaged in a murder-for-hire scheme wherein he enlisted one Silk Road user to murder another Silk Road user because he was threatening to release the identities of all the users of the website. The FBI, police, and prosecutors in the Southern District of New York collaborated in the operation that led to Ulbricht s arrest. Since November 2011, agents claim to have made over 100 different drug purchases through Silk Road. The complaint estimates that transactions worth over a total of 9.5 million Bitcoins were processed by Silk Road, which adds up to roughly $1.2 billion in sales. Silk Road, where cocaine and heroin were trafficked, is an online drug marketplace that exists on the Deep Web, a portion of the Internet that is hidden from typical browsers and not indexed by search engines. Keywords : Deep Web, Surface Web,Tor, Dark Web, Relay, legal activity, browser, research, silk route, FBI, information, onion, NASA, access, content, encryption, facebook, security, data, storage, market, drugs, weapons, sale. I. INTRODUCTION WHAT IS DEEP WEB? The Tor network, famously known as Deep Web, was developed and funded by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory with the hope that it could properly protect and encrypt government communications. It would create secure communications and escape censorship as a way to guarantee free speech. For example, The Deep Web helped mobilize the Arab Spring Protests [1]. But just unlikely any other tool, its impact can change depending from user to user. Now run by the Tor Project, earlier, from 2004 to 2005 it was supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Deep Web is supported financially by government organizations across the world, including the United States even to this day.standard search engines are inadequate to extract bulk of this enormously deep information that is available on the internet. Deep Web is popularly compared to an iceberg, ALthough, it preferably resembles more to a subterranean mining operation in terms of volatility, access and scale. If anything above ground is part of the searchable Internet, then anything below it is part of the Deep Web - hidden, not readily visible and harder to get to.any Internet content that can t be or isn t indexed by search engines like Google, for various reasons constitutes the Deep Web. This definition thus includes dynamic web pages, blocked sites, unlinked sites, private sites, non HTML/-contextual/-scripted content, DOI: /IJRTER W5PN8 70

2 and limited-access networks [3]. There are many words to describe the deep web including the invisible web, hidden web, and even Deep net. Though the Deep Web is little understood, the concept is quite simple. Think about it in terms of search engines. To give you results, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing constantly index pages. This is done by crawling the Web's threads by following the links between sites. However, that only lets them gather static pages, which are useless. Pages behind private networks or standalone pages that connect to nothing are not captured by search engines like Google. These are all part of the Deep Web. By typing a directed query into a web search form, a user can access this portion of the internet and can retrieve content within a database that is not linked. II. ARCHITECTURE OF DEEP WEB The architecture of deep web comprises of the following major components as shown in the figure, below a description of each component is presented: 1. USER INTERFACE : The user interface passes queries by providing a high level interface to the user and then passes the query to the deep web resources which is related to user specific queries. 2. FORM CLASSIFIER : It checks whether the identified web form present in a website is searchable or not. If yes, then the fields in that particular form are identified. 3. AUTOMATED FORM FILLING AND SUBMISSION : Searchable form field which is recognised by the Form Classifier is filled with user specified query and submitted for response automatically. 4. RESPONSE RESULTS : The response to the query of the user which is being searched by him/her is displayed by submitting the web form hence giving the returned All Rights Reserved 71

3 III. WHAT IS TOR? Tor is an Internet networking protocol designed to anonymize the data relayed across it. Invading your privacy by seeing your webmail, search history, social media posts or other online activity is difficult using Tor's software, if not impossible,. They also won't be able to tell which country you're in by analysing your IP address, which can be very useful for journalists, activists, businesspeople and more. 3.1 Working of TOR Browser To use Tor, you must download and install the Tor Browser, which you would use in replacement of Chrome, Firefox or whatever browser you normally use. Anything you do on this browser is then safe from the prying eyes of the government, hackers, Google Ads and other advertisers. Your data is bundled into encrypted packets before it enters the Tor network. After this, Tor takes off part of this packet s header, which includes information like the source, size, destination and timing, all of which can be used to learn things about the sender. Next, Tor encrypts the rest of the information, which a normal internet connection cannot do. Finally, the encrypted data is sent through many of the servers (called relays) randomly, each of which decrypts and then re-encrypts just enough of the data to know where it came from and where it is going next. The encrypted address layers used to anonymize data packets that are sent through the Tor network are like anonion, thus the name. [13] IV. SURFACE WEB VERSUS DEEP WEB: The Surface Web is as important as the Deep Web. That portion of the Internet that conventional search engines can index and standard web browsers can access without the need for special software and configurations is called Surface Web. It is also known as All Rights Reserved 72

Surface Web:- Entries are statically generated Linked Content (web crawled) Readily accessible through any browser or search engine unlike the Deep Web, which requires special search engines,

4 Surface Web:- Entries are statically generated Linked Content (web crawled) Readily accessible through any browser or search engine unlike the Deep Web, which requires special search engines, browsers, and proxies to access. Deep Web:- Entries are dynamically generated (submitted to a query or accessed via form). Unlinked Content Contextual Web Private Web Scripted Content Non-HTML content Limited Access Content (anti-robot protocols like CAPTCHA) V. DEEP WEB STATISTICS Some facts that show the drastic difference between the Surface Web and the Deep Web:- Public information on the deep Web is currently 400 to 550 times larger than the commonly defined World Wide Web. [9] Deep web comprises of 7500 terabytes of information as opposed to a mere 19 terabytes of information in the surface Web. [9] The deep Web contains nearly 550 billion individual documents compared to the 1 billion of the surface Web. [9] More than 200,000 deep Web sites presently exist. About 750 terabytes of information is contained by 60 of the largest deep web sites collectively sufficient by themselves to exceed the size of the surface Web forty times. [9] On average, deep Web sites receive fifty per cent greater monthly traffic than surface sites; however, the typical (median) deep Web site is not well known to the Internet-searching public. As compared to the Surface Web, total quality content of deep Web is 1,000 to 2,000 times greater. A full ninety-five per cent of the deep Web is publicly accessible information not subject to fees or subscriptions. All Rights Reserved 73

5 VI. LEVELS OF DEEP WEB 6.1 Level 0 - The Common Web The web that the vast majority of internet users are accustomed to. Accessible in any nation that does not block internet access, even places like China and Egypt. Social media sites like Facebook and informational websites like Wikipedia and other general websites, etc. 6.2 Level 1 The Surface Web This level is still accessible through normal means, but contains darker websites, such as Reddit and 4chan. 6.3 Level 2 - The Bergie Web It is the last level which is normally accessible. Everything that follows this level has to be accessed with a proxy, Tor or by modifying your hardware. It is that layer of the Surface Web that is blocked in some nations. It is only accessible through illegal means. It contains Google locked results. Recently web crawled old content. Pirated Media. 6.4 Level 3 The Deep Web The Deep Web is World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web and which is indexed by standard search All Rights Reserved 74

6 It should not be confused with the Darknet which could be classified as a smaller part of the Deep Web. It requires a proxy or two (namely Tor) to access. Contains most of the archived web pages of the 1990s Web that did not renew their domain names and such. Government/Business/Collegiate Research. Hackers/Script Kiddies/Virus Information. It contains Illegal and Obscene Content. (CP, Gore, Suicides, etc.) 6.5 Level four The Charter internet Like the Regular Deep internet, however more durable to induce into and a lot of content. Advanced covert government analysis. Most of the net black market (run on bitcoins),human/arms/drug/rare Animal Trafficking. Assassination networks, bounty hunters, outlaw game searching, line of blood locations, etc. Prohibited obscene content like CP, Gore, etc. 6.6 Level five Marianas internet Lowest illustrious level of the Deep internet. Named when the Spanish Technician United Nations agency created it. Extremely tough to access, users say it's the safest part of the net owing to however non-public it's. Julian Assange and alternative top-ranking Wikileaks members are believed to possess access. VII. LEGAL ACTIVITY ON DEEP WEB In the above sections we have discussed about the negative aspects of deep web, but the deep web is not entirely negative. Believe it or not, there is plenty of legal activity that goes on in the Deep Web. The Deep Web can be a very useful resource for a plethora of information. For instance, there are plenty of search engines that allow you to search databases not indexed by the Google s and Bing s of the world. These databases can contain virtual academic libraries or old versions of web pages [11. There are several tasks that are perfectly legal to perform on the Deep Web, and you might not realize that the data being accessed actually resides there. When somebody performs a background check on an individual, it searches several databases on the Internet for information. This information is actually being searched for on the Deep Web. Another use for the Deep Web is if an adopted person wanted to try and search for their natural parents. The databases that house this adoption information are on the Deep Web. You can also use the Deep Web to perform veteran research, or lookup your genealogy history. Legal research is also conducted on the Deep Web for cases. VIII. WAY FORWARD FOR DEEP WEB Various surface reports indicate the subsequent points concerning deep internet: 8.1 It'll still become safer: It is doubtless for technological developments associated with the Dark internet to enhance the furtiveness of darknets, reports say that extreme libertarians are attempting to search out new ways that to become a lot of anonymous and avoid detection by enforcement agencies. [15] 8.2 Marketplaces can become stronger: Trend micro foresees the rise of latest, fully localized marketplaces that believe Bitcoin All Rights Reserved 75

7 technology. [15] It predicts that this may be used to implement full-blown marketplaces while not one purpose of failure, guaranteeing trust and safe transactions. 8.3 It'll become easier to trust: It has become essential within the context of high obscurity to be able to guarantee trust associated name among sellers and patrons while not having to believe an external authority sort of a banking establishment as in canonical e-commerce. [15] 8.4 Bitcoins can become more durable to trace: Cryptocurrencies go hand in hand with Deep internet marketplaces. therein regard, we ll see new, advanced ways that to form Bitcoins even less traceable than they are currently. [15] It's additionally value noting that malware might make the most of blockchain technology. 8.5 A lot of folks can use it: While regular internet users don't have abundant of a reason to begin exploitation the Deep internet anytime before long, it's expected that increasing public awareness might mean increased quantity of interest within the Dark internet and alternative equally supposed sites within the Deep internet. IX. CONCLUSION Even though deep web is well known for malicious activities, we can still use it for positive purposes such as in politically unstable parts of the world like Syria, Somalia, Uganda, North Korea, etc. where news journalists and activists have almost no power to express their opinions freely, deep web can be used as a platform to voice their opinions. It can also be used for classified communication and exchange of information between intelligence agencies, such as U.S government workers who need to escape security from foreign secret agencies for covert operations. Websites like Facebook have taken an initiative to counter online censorship by opening a URL on Tor (facebookcorewwwi.onion). [3] Also, NASA has joined hands with Defence Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by creating a web browser to make sense of deep web. If more and more government agencies and computer organisations join hands to keep a check on the bad activities on the deep web and take an active initiative to use it with a positive intent, then only we will be able to use the deep web for the optimistic purposes for which it was initially created. REFERENCES: The Ultimate Guide to the Invisible Web, Below the Surface: Exploring the Deep web (A TrendLabs Research Paper) 15. All Rights Reserved 76

Dark Web. Ronald Bishof, MS Cybersecurity. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Dark Web. Ronald Bishof, MS Cybersecurity. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA Dark Web Ronald Bishof, MS Cybersecurity This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA Surface, Deep Web and Dark Web Differences of the Surface Web, Deep Web and Dark Web Surface Web - Web