I have been listening to an audio book on the Dark Web by Bernard, Achampong and Geoff White. It goes from the murky origin of the Dark Web. Which it turns out it was initially ran by the US government covertly. This was to enable its to keep in contact with its agents all over the world and transfer information clandestinely. There are organized criminal gangs who were doing business on the Dark Web and treat each transaction as a business transaction even with a business plan, their own customer support, etc. The book gave a large amount of insight into the reason why it is and who was maintaining it.
The book also talked on the rise of bitcoin and it use on the Dark Web, being the source of untraceable money. On the Dark Web anonymity is ensured, as the computers do not emit IP addresses as these are masked. From software viruses or ransomware, the Investigative Journalist was able to get it without any computer experience. As the finished virus package was downloaded to his email address with a message to click on this.
The book is more insight into the world of the hackers. That the average hacker was not a teenage boy and in his bedroom some where writing code. Even the person that developed ZeuS, was using the Dark Web was able to refine and modify his skills, customers requirements, taking about 1$ Billion worldwide. He was able to refine his software and tailor it to the business requirements of his various clients. He ran it as a silicon business start up with a business plan, and HR, etc.
Most hackers are said to start in the world of gaming. As by default the games now built incorporate difficult levels of tricks, skills and coding, which are like those used in hacking. Essentially gaming is hacking a system to win you must have a particular mindset to “cheat” or beat a system or win the game or move to the next level. Gamers exchange tips and tricks, cheats or short cuts. Also some of the games encourage collaboration with others across the world, hence you could be working with others as a team in Russia, Ukraine, Japan, etc. These are mostly what is happening now, as the hackers do form syndicates each person bringing in a particular unique skill to group. Trust is not even required as there is total anonymity and all transactions are done on the Dark Web, and if you are to be paid - bitcoin untraceable money. To rule out whether you are a police officer you are given trust levels as the number of offences you have committed or paid for their type and it’s severity, something that a police officer would unlikely to get permission to do. If people suspect you are an undercover police officer, you are marked and others will avoid you.
Before this time, I had been discouraging my boys from playing video games. But after reading that they have added additional features that help with collaboration, planning, foresight etc. I decided to allow them to download a free sample which had different levels with a time limit. Not that I want them to be hackers, no - I want them to be able to use IT skills to find jobs and collaborate with their colleagues in building stuff.
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