The Deep Web, the Darknet, Botnets and Zombie Armies
Hmmm, do we dare to peer into the bottomless cavern of our digital age interconnectivity?
Useless trivia fact: the internet and I are roughly the same age, although the similarities end there. I am aging and slowing down while the internet grows in speed and reach with literally every passing minute.
As a digital immigrant, I have adapted to the internet as an integral part of my existence. It is a tool I use to avoid being left behind by the amped-up pace of the digital age. Until recently, however, I was not aware of the Pandora’s Box I am cracking the lid on each time I log on.
Apparently, I am only tapping into the Surface Web – the outer skin of the internet that traditional search engines can access. My online forays are akin to dipping my toe into the ocean. There is a vast and frightening universe below what I have casually explored. It is known as the Deep Web – aka the Deep Net or the Invisible Web or the Hidden Web.
It seems that no one can accurately estimate the size of the Deep Web given its anonymity and the fact that it is constantly expanding. Best guess estimates peg it at more than 550 times larger than the Surface Web and still growing exponentially.
The Deep Web is a mysterious and sometimes murky place where users often intentionally bury data. Tapping into it requires special browser software such as Tor (an acronym for The Onion Router) which enables anonymous communication.
Those in the know believe that the Deep Web – in particular, the Dark Web aka the Darknet, a subsection of the Deep Web – is a haven for serious criminal activities.
The Dark Web, to the best of my limited understanding, is a collection of websites that are publicly visible but which hide the IP addresses of the servers than run them. Suffice to say, it is virtual dark alley that most of us would never want to stumble into.
You might well adopt the point of view that this seedy underside of the internet is not a concern since you will never willingly go there. Alas, you may already be caught up in it.
Any one of us could unwillingly be part of a Botnet (aka a Zombie Army) – internet connected computers which, without their owners being aware of it, have been hijacked to forward spam or viruses to other computers on the internet. Most of these computers, which are in effect a robot or bot serving the nefarious purposes of a dark techie lord, are home-based computers.
In summary, the internet has evolved to be a bottomless cavern the depths of which are occupied by all manner of unscrupulous bottom-dwellers. Like it or not, each of us may have been unknowingly conscripted to be part of their illicit activities.
The Deep Web has become an unsavoury metaphor for the dark side of humanity – the unprincipled and opportunistic minority that choose to exploit the cracks, crevices and unseen loopholes of our society for their own gain. Quite the double-sided sword, is it not?
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .
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