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Can and Should There Be a ‘Lights Out’ for the Dark Web?

In this week’s WimLearn, Lara K in Year 11 explores the ethical dilemma authorities face when regulating the dark web.

What is the Dark Web?

Often, the internet is thought of as one large, online platform. In actuality, the internet more closely resembles an iceberg with 3 layers: the surface web, the deep web, and finally, the dark web. The surface web is what you probably visit every day; accessible through a standard browser, this is where you find public pages like Wikipedia, YouTube and my Grandmother’s food blog. The next layer, the deep web, consists of web pages that are access-controlled (so not fully accessible to the public). For example, emails or bank records require a login, JSTOR has a paywall, even our school firefly website is on the deep web. The third layer, the dark web, exists on dark nets which requires special software to access. These dark websites take many forms: both small friend-to-friend peer-to-peer networks and popular, sprawling networks like Tor and I2P1. Many people, including academics and law enforcement agencies, have struggled to formulate an opinion on the dark web and- crucially- whether or not it should be allowed to continue.

Why Should We Shut Down the Dark Web?

Activity on the dark web is completely anonymous and very difficult to trace2. As a result of the anonymity, it’s becoming a cancerous hub for criminal activity that is near impossible for governments to regulate. In a 2015 study, researchers at King’s College London studied 2723 dark websites over 5 weeks- 57% of these sites hosted illegal content3­­. Recently, studies have placed this percentage even higher4. Prevalent crimes on the dark web include illicit (particularly child) pornography, publication of private/sensitive information, marketplaces which sell illegal materials: drugs, weapons, slaves, information (e.g. Netflix passwords or social security numbers), and services (e.g. hackers)5.[1]

This use of dark web markets means that terrorists, in particular, can undermine UN and governmental measures which aim to stop weaponry and other such resources from reaching them6. Furthermore, the use of encrypted communication (via the dark web) means that authorities are unable to intercept terrorist plans- potentially putting countless lives at risk. Evidence of this encryption was acquired in 2013 by the US National Security Agency which intercepted communications between the leaders of al-Qaeda6.

Why We Should Not Shut Down the Dark Web?

There are ethical concerns about whether removing the dark net would be justifiable. Contrarily to public perception, the dark web hosts numerous legal activities7– simply giving users access to private, surveillance-free communication without the anxiety of an accumulating digital footprint. For example, many dark web activities resemble the surface web (like Facebook8). As a result, some argue that attempts to terminate the dark web are authoritarian and impede freedom of speech.

Furthermore, dark websites can provide invaluable platforms for advocacy and whistleblowing- allowing people to overcome censorship or taboo. To illustrate, ProPublica is a Tor publication which gives readers access to journalistic content that their governments may have censored9. In fact, Human Rights Watch, in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council, declared:

“we urge all governments to promote the use of strong encryption technologies and to protect the right to seek, receive and impart information anonymously online.”10

Photo by Soumil Kumar from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-person-typing-on-computer-keyboard-735911/

So Should We Shut Down the Dark Web?

Despite ethical concerns, many countries have concluded that the criminality of the dark web outweighs any benefits of its existence. For instance, the UN- supposedly representative of the international body- has expressed concerns over the dark web11. Furthermore, the Centre for International Governance Innovation surveyed people across 24 countries: 71% of the respondents believed in dark net termination12.

Can we shut down the Dark Web?

In short, no; it is probably not feasible to shut down the whole dark web. Like the surface web, it consists of thousands of private websites- to shut each of these down, and ensure new websites don’t emerge, is simply impossible with current technology13. As with the internet itself, the dark web is not a centralised operation with one big red button to shut it all down.[2]

Instead, countries/organisations have attempted to shut down specific dark websites one-by-one- somewhat unsuccessfully. Even if a dark website is terminated, there is a sprawling network of pages from which another site will spring up in its place. For example, when the FBI shut down The Silk Road (a notorious dark net drug market) in 2013, dozens of similarly harmful replacement sites emerged4.

Other solutions?

Whilst shutting down the dark web is not feasible, there are several other approaches which may prove more fruitful. For example, many law enforcement agencies have tried rooting illegal activity out of the dark web. This has proved a challenging endeavour. Typically, authorities collect a range of evidence about cyber criminals (like IP) to catch and eventually prosecute them14. However, the dark web encryption means that tracing criminals is a technically complex, often futile process. Additionally, illegal dark web marketplace transactions can’t be tracked as the use of cryptocurrency (typically Bitcoin or Monero) renders both distributors and customers anonymous6.

Another method is for law enforcement agencies to go undercover on the dark web. For example, in 2013 the FBI arrested Ross Ulbricht, the leader of the aforementioned Silk Road, after acting as an undercover agent on the site15. Similarly, the “honeypot trap” method has also proved successful, but deeply unethical1. In this method, law enforcement agents also go undercover on the dark web but partake in illicit activity with the aim of catching those who try to access the illicit content. Infamously, in 2014-2015 the FBI obtained a search warrant on “Playpen”- a dark website hosting child pornography. Instead of closing down the site, the FBI operated “Playpen” and received a further warrant to send malware to the devices of those who accessed the content. The malware searched their computers for child pornography and, using IP addresses, the FBI was able to locate criminals16. As a result, by May 2017, 548 related arrests were made17. However, by not terminating “Playpen”, the FBI was actively enabling the further spread of child pornography for nearly two weeks- allowing thousands of people access. Additionally, the malware used invaded the privacy of thousands16. It could be argued that the sweeping warrant issued to the FBI to use the malware breached the fourth amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.18

Indeed, the malware “violated” thousands with surveillance- many of whom did not possess child pornography. In spite of this, the remarkable outcome of “Playpen” (shown below in the bar chart17) proves the effectiveness of undercover operations.[3]

[17]

Alternatively, countries have dealt with the dark web offline- drawing on the principle that the dark web is merely a platform to enable and display criminal activity; the actual crime happens in the real world with real people. Hence, organisations- like the UN- are working to improve regulatory measures which prevent crime before it reaches the dark web. To illustrate, the International Tracing Instrument (2005)19 legally requires small arms to be marked with identifying information (like serial number, country of manufacture and more) and record-keeping be kept on all weapons. With refinement and stricter adherence to the policy, this could enable law enforcement agencies to track down where dark web marketplace weapons are produced, supplied, and sold. Therefore, efforts to target relevant offline crime would be more targeted. The principle could be similarly applied to other dark web crimes.

Furthermore, increased social support could avert people from the dark web. This may include education about the risks and consequences of cybercrime. In the UK, cyber security/crime and ethics feature in computer science curricula20 and PSHE. Also, protecting and supporting those vulnerable to various aspects of dark web crime could curb illegal activity. For instance, the UK Prevent Strategy (2011) aims to prevent the radicalisation of people susceptible to terrorist recruitment using various methods21. From 2015-16, 7,631 people were referred to Prevent; 7,631 potential dark web terrorists had there been no intervention. Whilst Prevent was not ideal- facing allegations of institutionalised Islamophobia22– similar policies tackling each of the numerous dark web crimes could prove fruitful. For example, perhaps intervention could be provided to those vulnerable to trafficking, illicit sexual activity, drug abuse, illegal arms possession, and more.

Finally, many organisations have researched specific issues surrounding the dark web- aiming to increase the efficiency of tackling crime. For instance, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) collects data about dark web drug sales, publishing this in their annual world drug[4]report23 Developing knowledge and increasing transparency around the dark web can help guide international efforts against cybercrime and enlighten the public about the all-too-often misunderstood layer of the internet.

Perhaps, although there may never be a ‘lights out’ for the dark web, there may be a ‘lights on’ for our understanding and our capability to fight back.

References:

[1] 1D. Clayton. Addressing the Challenges of Enforcing the law on the Dark Web. Global Justice Blog. 11-11-2007. https://law.utah.edu/addressing-the-challenges-of-enforcing-the-law-on-the-dark-web/ (Accessed 2022-18-08)

2What is the Dark Web? Microsoft 365. 15-07-22. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-life-hacks/privacy-and-safety/what-is-the-dark-web (Accessed 2022-18-08)

3D. Moore, T. Rid. Cryptopolitik and the Darknet. Survival, vol. 58, no. 1, 2016: pp. 7-384

4M. McGuire. Into Web of Profit Study Behind Dark Net Black Mirror. HP Threat Research Blog. 06-06-2019 https://threatresearch.ext.hp.com/study-explores-dark-net-enterprise-risk/ (Accessed 2022-03-09)

5E. Fisher. Dark Web Crimes. Find Law. 21-12-2021. https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-charges/dark-web-crimes.html (Accessed 2022-30-08)

6 G. Weimann. Going Darker? Center. 31-05-2018. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/going-darker-the-challenge-dark-net-terrorism (Accessed 2022-20-08)

[2]

7 M. Mirea, V. Wang, J. Jung. The not so dark side of the darknet: a qualitative study. Security Journal, vol. 32, 2019: pp. 102-118.

8 Wikipedia. 30-06-2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_onion_address (Accessed 2022-22-08)

9 C. Giwa. Why ProPublica Joined the Dark Web. Propublica. 19-01-2016. https://www.propublica.org/podcast/why-propublica-joined-the-dark-web (Accessed 2022-20-08)

10 Promote Strong Encryption and Anonymity in the Digital Age. Human Rights Watch. 17-06-2015. https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/17/promote-strong-encryption-and-anonymity-digital-age-0 (Accessed 2022-22-08)

11 Secretary-General Calls Cyberterrorism Using Social Media, Dark Web, ‘New Frontier’ in Security Council Ministerial Debate. UN Press. 25-09-2015. https://press.un.org/en/2019/sgsm19768.doc.htm (Accessed 2022-22-08)

12 S. Zohar. The “Dark Net” should be shut down: CIGI-Ipsos global survey: But what about its benefits? Centre for International Governance Innovation. 24-03-2016. https://www.cigionline.org/articles/dark-net-should-be-shut-down-cigi-ipsos-global-survey-what-about-its-benefits/ (Accessed 2022-22-08)

13 T. Leetim. The Dark Web: what it is, how it works, and why it’s not going away. Vox. 31-12-2014. https://www.vox.com/2014/12/31/7470965/dark-web-explained (Accessed 2022-02-09)

[3] 14 How Do Cybercriminals Get Caught? Norton. 18-01-2018. https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-emerging-threats-how-do-cybercriminals-get-caught.html (Accessed 2022-25-08)

15 T. Hume. How FBI caught Ross Ulbricht, alleged creator of criminal marketplace Silk Road. CNN. 05-10-2013. https://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/04/world/americas/silk-road-ross-ulbricht/index.html (Accessed 2022-25-08)

16 M. Rumold. Playpen: The Story of the FBI’s Unprecedented and Illegal Hacking Operation. Electronic Frontier Foundation. 15-09-2016. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/09/playpen-story-fbis-unprecedented-and-illegal-hacking-operation (Accessed 2022-25-08)

17 ‘Playpen’ Creator Sentenced to 30 Years. FBI. 05-05-2017. https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/playpen-creator-sentenced-to-30-years (Accessed 2022-25-08)

18 J. Madison. US Constitution. Pennsylvania, 1787, amendment 4.

[4] 19 International Instrument to Enable States to Identify and Trace, in a Timely and Reliable Manner, Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons, New York: United Nations, 2005

20 GCSE Computer Science (9-1)- J277. OCR https://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse/computer-science-j277-from-2020/ (Accessed 2022-25-08)

21 HM Government. Prevent Strategy 2011. GOV.UK. 07-06-2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-strategy-2011 (Accessed 2022-25-08)

22 M. Versi. The latest Prevent figures show why the strategy needs an independent review. The Guardian. 10-11-2022 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/10/prevent-strategy-statistics-independent-review-home-office-muslims (Accessed 30-08-2022)

23 World Drug Report 2022. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2022. https://www.unodc.org/unodc/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2022.html (Accessed 2022-30-08)

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GROW 2.0: a Review

Mr Ben Turner, Assistant Head Pastoral at WHS, looks at some of the key messages from last week’s Grow 2.0 conference, looking at what it means to be Human in an A.I. World.

 

Panel
Discussions and debate from our recent GROW 2.0 Conference

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the troubling determinism of social media and the corrosive effect of echo chambers on our beliefs. At GROW 2.0 however, Robert Plomin talked to us of a different kind of determinism. In a mesmerising, if slightly worrying, lecture he enthralled us all with his ground-breaking work into, what he calls, the ‘DNA Revolution’. I say worrying because, according to Plomin, 60% of any child’s GCSE attainment is down to their genetics. The other 40%? Well, there are no systemic factors, that scientists have yet identified, that make a discernible difference in a child’s attainment.

Plomin debunked outdated notions of nature vs. nurture and instead asked us to think about our genetic predispositions.  He warned that we must never mistake correlation for causation. If, for example, a parent reads to their five-year-old every night, it is easy for us to believe that that child’s predilection for books and literature later in life is because of their parent’s diligence at that early age. Plomin would argue however that we have missed the point entirely and ignored the correlation of the parent’s love of reading being passed, genetically, to their child.

This is a powerful message to share with teachers and parents. As a school and, in these turbulent times, a sector we offer a huge variety of activities, interests and passions to those we educate. It is all too easy, as a teacher, parent or pupil to put on your GCSE blinkers and ignore the world around you. If 60% of the outcome is determined by our genetics, why not embrace that other 40%? Fill that time and energy with all of the ‘non-systematic’ activities, trips, hobbies and sports that you possibly can. Because, if we are still not sure what actually makes a difference, variety of engagement is surely the best possible choice.

 

We were lucky enough to also hear from Professor Rose Luckin, a leading thinker in artificial intelligence and its uses in education. It was inspiring to hear the possibilities ahead of us but also reassuring to hear the primacy, from someone truly immersed in the field, of the human spirit. Rose talked about an ‘intelligence infrastructure’ that is made up of seven distinct intelligences. The most important of these for her were the ‘meta-intelligences’, for example, the ‘meta-subjective’ and ‘meta-contextual’. It is our ability to access others’ emotions and our context “as we wander around the world” that Luckin believes separates us from even the most exciting advancements in A.I.

VR
Does VR have a role in education in the future? How can it not have a role given the exciting opportunities it offers?

 

As an educator, where I think I gained the most excitement from Rose’s talk were the possibilities for bespoke and tailored learning for every child. The use of data to help us with the educational needs of learners has some amazing possibilities. One could imagine every child having an early years assessment to understand the penchants and possibilities that lie ahead. This could lead to a bespoke path of access arrangements and curriculum for each child. A possibility that, as Rose said, is truly exciting as we will finally be able to “educate the world”.

More photos of the event on Flickr. 

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A life of skimming is a life half-lived – 05/10/18

Fionnuala Kennedy, Senior Deputy Head, looks at the benefits of slow reading with reference to recent pieces on BBC Radio 4 and in The Guardian.

Two things happened recently which made me stop and think and – believe me – this is not a common occurrence in the month of September when you’re a Deputy Head. The first was a brilliantly written article by Maryanne Wolf in ‘The Guardian’. Wolf is the Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA, and she writes with integrity and from a well-researched foundation of data about the areas of learning we are losing as we become digital and therefore skim, rather than deep, readers. It’s not just our inability to remember sequences of information and details which is in decline, but – and much more troublingly – our ability to ‘understand another’s feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own’. In other words, we are losing the magical moments in reading described so perfectly by Alan Bennett’s (albeit hugely flawed) character Hector in ‘The History Boys’:

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours”.

And, if deep – even slow –reading helps to make us more empathetic and feel less alone, then it stands to reason that a society of skim readers is a weaker society.

But we have also to accept that tech is not only here to stay, but will continue to develop at a stratospheric rate. And that’s the way it should be. It’s very easy as educators and parents to tut at Gen Z and their screen time addictions, but that is unhelpful at best and hypocritical at worst.

The second thing which caught my attention this week was the brilliant Radio 4 satire ‘Agendum’, in which they make the point – very much more wittily than I am about to – that we talk about screen time ill-preparing our teens for everyday living, even as we sit at our desks day in, day out, tapping away in front of screens. We are all in this together, not just young people; indeed, when I shared Wolf’s article with the academic management team, one of them confessed that ironically she had skim read it…

So, as Sherry Turkle points out, it is not advancement which is the problem – ever – but rather our inability to either predict or preserve the positive aspects of what we do which said advancement disrupts or even destroys. And so the baby gets thrown out with the bath water. It’s like someone who decides to exercise more giving up the notion of lying down entirely; it’s great to be active but we still need to rest. So Wolf suggests that we need to ‘cultivate a new kind of brain: a “bi-literate” reading brain capable of the deepest forms of thought in either digital or traditional mediums’. In other words, we need to adapt to our new digital, high-speed culture by practising and thus preserving our ability to read in-depth.

Which ties in perfectly with the talk we hosted last week by Carl Honore, who is the ‘guru’ of what he has coined ‘Slow Living’. In a world where being busy, tired and even stressed seems not only the norm but something of a badge of honour, it’s time to slow down when we need to, to adapt our speed according to the task and to the moment. If you’re reading a weather report to see whether you need to take your umbrella out with you, or a summary of a Netflix show to see if you’d like to watch it, or an Ocado recipe as you do a mental stock take of the ingredients you’ll need to buy, skim reading is fine, appropriate, good, even. If you’re reading ‘Middlemarch’, perhaps a skim isn’t doing it, or you, or society, any justice.

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Artificial Intelligence & Art: A Provocation – 14/09/18

Rachel Evans, Director of Digital Learning and Innovation at WHS, looks at the links between Art and Artificial Intelligence, investigating how new technology is innovating the discipline.

What is art? We might have trouble answering that question: asking whether a machine can create art takes the discussion in a new direction.

Memo Akten is an artist based at Goldsmith’s, University of London where much exciting work is taking place around the intersection of artificial intelligence and creative arts.

Akten’s work Learning to see was created by first showing a neutral network tens of thousands of images of works of art from the Google Arts Project.  The machine then ‘watches’ a webcam, under which objects or other images are placed, and uses its ‘knowledge’ to create new images of its own. This still is from the film Gloomy Sunday. Was it ‘thinking’ of Strindberg’s seascape?

I have been fascinated by this artwork since I first saw it and have watched it many times. The changing image is mesmerising as the machine presents, develops and alters its output in response to the input. It draws me in, not only as a visual experience, but for the complex response it provokes as I think about what I am seeing.

Akten describes the work as:

An artificial neural network making predictions on live webcam input, trying to make sense of what it sees, in context of what it’s seen before.

It can see only what it already knows, just like us.

In 1972 the critic John Berger used the exciting medium of colour television to present a radical approach to art criticism, Ways of Seeing, which was then published as an affordable Penguin paperback. In the opening essay of the book he wrote “Every image embodies a way of seeing. […] The photographer’s way of seeing is reflected in his choice of subject. […] Yet, although every image embodies a way of seeing, our perception or appreciation of an image also depends on our own way of seeing.” When Akten writes that the machine “can see only what it already knows, just like us” he approaches the idea that the response of the neural network is human-like in its desire to find meaning and context, just as we attempt to find an image which we can recognise in the work it creates.

If the artist is choosing the subject, but the machine transforms what it sees into ‘art’, is the machine ‘seeing’? Or are we wholly creating the work in our response to it and the work is close to random – a machine-generated response to a stimulus not unlike a human splattering paint?

Jackson Pollock wrote “When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.” Is the neural network performing this role here for the artist, of distancing during the creative process, of letting the ideas flow, to be considered afterwards?

Is the artist the sole creator, in that he has created the machine? That might be the case at the moment, with the current technology, but interestingly Akten refers to himself as “exploring collaborative co-creativity between humans and machines”.

I find this fascinating and it raises more questions than I can answer: it leaves me wanting to know more. It has prompted me to delve back into my own knowledge and understanding of art history and criticism to make connections that will help me respond. In short – encountering this work has caused me to think and learn.

In the current discussions in the media and in education around artificial intelligence we tend to focus on the extremes of the debate in a non-specific way – with the alarmist ‘the robots will take our jobs’ at one end and the utopian ‘AI will solve healthcare’ at the other. A focus for innovation at WHS this year is to open up a discussion about artificial intelligence, but this discussion needs to be detailed and rich in content if it’s going to lead to understanding. We want the students to understand this technology which will impact on their lives: as staff, we want to contribute to the landscape of knowledge and action around AI in education to ensure that the solutions which will arrive on the market will be fair, free of bias and promote equality. Although a work of art may seem an unusual place to start, the complex ideas it prompts may set us on the right path to discuss the topic in a way which is rigorous and thoughtful.

So – let the discussion begin.