We all love what the Internet has to offer. We use it every day through work, school projects, and even using social media on our cell phones. To unsuspecting people, these are the basic uses for the Internet, but there’s more. A lot more.
There is another form of the Internet known ‘The Dark internet‘ This alternative to the Internet we know is meant to keep users’ information anonymous and allow them to roam freely throughout the sites without being noticed.
Accessing the dark web is fairly easy, but staying anonymous is the difficult part. This is used by hackers, drug dealers, and other people engaging in illegal activity. The dark web brings in a lot of revenue as well.
Some sites, like the one used by Besa Mafia, a fake hitman who made a six-figure salary by scamming people into thinking he would kill others after he was paid.
Not all of those who use the Hacker proves there is no anonymity when accessing the dark internet are necessarily bad people, either. There was one hacker who took down over 20% of the dark web by exposing sites meant for trading and selling child pornography.
The Right Idea about the dark internet
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The hacker, simply known as a vigilante, intended to go through the files of a dark web Hosting site, Freedom Hosting II. However, while he was sifting through the hosting site’s files, he came across approximately 10 sites with over 30GB of child pornography and his plan changed drastically. “I just had the right idea,” said the vigilante. He went from simply hacking into Freedom Hosting II’s data files to coming up with a plan to bring it all down completely.
Freedom Hosting II had already had a run-in with the law in 2013. The site was busted and shut down. The bust also led to many child pornography prosecutions. Just a few years later, however, the vigilante exposed the site again for making the same mistake. The vigilante had reason to believe Freedom Hosting II knew about the child pornography sites running on its servers due to the fact that it allowed them to surpass the 256MB data cap.
How He Did It
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The hosting site is one of the most used hosts on the dark internet. When the vigilante hacked their database, he also hacked the more than 10,000 sites it hosts.
When visitors to these sites loaded up the webpages, they were met with a message that read “Hello, Freedom Hosting II, you have been hacked.” It goes on to reveal the reason for the hack, stating “We are disappointed. We found while searching that your server is more than 50 per cent child porn.”
Since the vigilante had access to the hosting site’s files, he then confiscated them and has turned them over to a security researcher, who will give the data to law enforcement in hopes that it will bring justice to the accused. While some of us see this as heroism, some people at the FBI may not agree.
Upon accessing the dark web, the FBI hacks into sites and takes over control, then they are able to access more information from its users and potentially take down more people who are dabbling in the illegal activity.
Since this hack took down about one-fifth of all the dark web, some FBI officials feel they may have lost out on catching more criminals. Either way, the sites in question have been revealed and the vigilante took at least some off the dark web map.
