What is the dark web? Finding consensus on the answer to that question is surprisingly challenging. Typically, studies discussing cyber threat and the dark web focus on sites hosted on hidden services within the Tor network. These sites—accessed by URLs ending in “onion”—are only accessible through Tor, an Internet overlay proxy network that users most frequently access with a special browser called the Tor Browser. Tor hidden services are outside the reach of a standard Internet browser and are set up so that both the hosts and the visitors of those sites are anonymous.

While many measures and discussions of the dark web focus on these hidden services, the dark web is bigger than just hidden services. A large number of sites customers classify as the dark web don’t live on Tor at all; they are hosted on the regular Internet and can be accessed from any browser. Often, these sites are simply hosted in countries where running, for example, a marketplace for stolen credit cards is not grounds to be shut down. For instance, many major fraud markets that claim to provide credit cards or bank accounts live, technically, on the clear web, and popular exploit sites exist steadily on even the most common top-level domains, even dot-coms.

Read more ---> What makes the dark web dark?

What can we do about the dark web?

Nevertheless, the question remains: Should we shut down the dark web? Here are some other questions that will be up for discussion among a panel of experts exploring the dark web, 28 June 2016, at 1 p.m. Eastern:

• Why are deep and dark web actors so much more challenging to identify?

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• Can we permanently shut down the dark web? Would we want to? Why or why not?

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• What type of illegal activities are conducted on the deep and dark web?

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• What challenges does the dark web present for law enforcement agencies?

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• What should be the government’s role in policing the dark web?

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• What should or can private sector entities do in the deep and dark web?

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Attend the live panel discussion for answers to these questions and more.

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Host

Bob Stasio is a senior product manager of cyber analysis with IBM i2 Safer Planet. Stasio has nearly 14 years of expertise fighting top-tier malicious actors in the intelligence community, the US military, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the commercial sector. He also served on the initial staff of the US Cyber Command. During the troop surge of 2007, his intelligence unit supported the detainment of more than 450 high-value targets.

Guests

Tyler Carbone is a technology entrepreneur with a business and law background. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia, Tyler has cofounded and successfully sold two technology companies. He has consulted and advised a variety of clients, ranging from a Fortune 500 financial services company to local start-ups. Tyler currently is COO at Terbium Labs in Baltimore, Maryland.

Scott Dueweke formed Zebryx Consulting in 2015 to provide public and private sector clients an understanding of identities and alternative payment systems—both risks and rewards. Dueweke is an expert on identity and anonymous payments on the Internet, and he regularly advises senior leadership within financial institutions and the US government. He previously provided similar services for Agilex and from 2006–2014 with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Michael Goedeker is an author and researcher at the front end of cyber warfare, espionage and crime and researching academia, press and security professionals globally.