The dark net

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Infiltrating ‘The Dark Net’, Where Criminals, Trolls And Extremists Reign

There’s a side to the Internet most people have never visited. Tor Hidden Services, or the Tor Network, is an encrypted, hidden network of about 50,000 websites that can’t be accessed with a traditional browser like Chrome or Firefox. Its users include criminals, trolls and extremists.

Author Jamie Bartlett, who chronicles the secret corners of the Internet in his book The Dark Net, likens it to the “wild West.”

How Dark Net marketplaces work:

“When you go onto this site, you use your encrypted browser — the tor browser — you have your Bitcoin, which is a crypto-currency that allows you to transact with people; it’s sort of a form of digital cash that keeps your identity secret. So you have this clever encryption system but it’s so familiar when you arrive. You get online, you log onto the site, and you are presented with what essentially looks like an eBay for drugs — so thousands of products from hundreds of different vendors based all around the world, and all those trappings of an e-commerce site. You have your special offers. You have your product descriptions. You have your — crucially your — user reviews of each product that’s on offer… You scroll through the different options available to you. You contact the vendor, if you so wish. You place an order. You pay with your crypto-currency. You put your address in, and you wait for your product to arrive in the post. It really is that simple.”