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The Dark Web

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Cyber Criminology

Abstract

The dark web consists of those websites that cannot be accessed except through special anonymizing software, most commonly the Tor package. Web services hidden this way have proved extremely difficult for authorities to track down. While there are many legitimate hidden sites, the dark web has also attracted a wide range of criminal enterprises, often enabled by the availability of anonymous cryptocurrency payments. While Tor has some theoretical weaknesses, most law-enforcement actions against hidden sites (the Silk Road, Playpen, etc.) have succeeded only because of operational mistakes by the sites’ administrators.

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Correspondence to Peter Lars Dordal .

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Dordal, P.L. (2018). The Dark Web. In: Jahankhani, H. (eds) Cyber Criminology. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97181-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97181-0_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97180-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97181-0

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

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