Part one
The world and the net.
In today's world billion of people would be lost without their computers and the internet. Those technologies have become such a part of their existence they often do not even realize they're using computers and the internet. In the last decade or so awareness of the dangers computers and the internet harbor, and the problems that can cause to its users is growing rapidly but so is the availability and accessibility of the means to cause those dangers and problems. The thing that is, or should be, a concern to us is whether the first is growing fast enough to catch up to the second.
Blissful ignorance.
What I mean is that the ignorance of the masses when it comes to safety and security in relation to computers and the internet is mind blowing, at least to me. One would think that, in this day and age, no one would be susceptible anymore to emails from unknown senders containing links (for example).
The simple fact that spam-filters are simply unable to screen out such spam mails completely because there are so many of them proves however they're still an effective and working method for nefarious activities. And not clicking a link in an email from an unknown sender is kind of lesson 1 in internet doe’s and don’t s.
One can imagine how blissfully ignorant the majority of people must be concerning the more evolved, complex, devious and harder to defend against threats that the internet holds. One shudders to think about those that are being developed and unleashed upon the internet each and every day.
How bad can it be?
Well, to those who've so far been unaware of little if any risks or danger…..
A quick search on pastebin.com turns up a post containing:
“tl; dr: I discovered a glitch that allowed me to guess, in large number, existing Google accounts addresses that could otherwise be unknown. “
and Pastebin.com is a normally reachable, clear-web website everyone can go to. If such so called xploits or 0days can be found that easily, imagine what is out there on the so called deep-web or dark-web of the internet.
Wut? There's more?
Oh yes. There is more, much more!
I can save those with limited imaginations the trouble.
I often delve into the deep-web and into the dark-web to see what is out there. I've been keeping up with the shadier sides of computer technology since the early 80's, and traveled the shadier parts of the internet since before the internet became the internet.
The details of what, how, where and why of my activities, past or present, are irrelevant but suffice to say I know my way around.
And can tell you that what I find out there is enough to make some people disconnect their computers from the internet and go live off the grid in the desert or jungle somewhere.
What is out there.
Of course there are the communication channels, websites, blogs and news outlets from places where freedom of speech or press do not exist through which intrepid journalists, bloggers or activists get out their message to the world.
Of course you'll come across all the tinfoil-hat categories like conspiracy theorists, anarchists and the like. And yes, there's almost no escaping the child pornography sites unfortunately.
But it does not end there.
For some it is unimaginable but child pornography is not the worst kind of sexual sickness out there. Not only is there the “normal” necrophilia, of which there is more available than any normal human being could stomach but there are actually sites where pictures and videos can be obtained of people killing other humans before having sex with their corpses. Even worse, there are “red-rooms” where these things are done live.
Now I am sure that the majority of that kind of material is fake. But I’ve seen things that would take skilled triple A horror movie producers enormous budgets to reproduce. And even if just 1% is the real thing…
I can tell you I wish I could UN-see some of the things I’ve seen.
But all of those things above represent little or no threat to the common internet dweller. Their threat comes from the other things you can find.
Going to market?
Despite the recent take down of the two largest marketplaces, of which Alpha-market was the most (in)famous, there are plenty more of them still active and who's owners/operators haven't yet made stupid mistakes that got them in the sights of law-enforcement. On those sites the trade in drugs, weapons, credit cards, hacker services and so on are thriving.
*End of part 1