Webinar Video Clip: Understanding the Dark Web

What criminals have always wanted is for their activities to remain undetected. This makes committing these crimes online somewhat inevitable – some of the people we tend to communicate with online aren’t ones that we necessarily know, hiding behind a username, a fake persona, or a stock photo as profile image. The level of anonymity is further strengthened once the online transactions are done on the dark web level where everything is encrypted a few couple of times ensuring the identity and location of the sender, as well as the destination of information, are untraceable.

Dr. Sean Goodison, from the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), is this session’s instructor to provide an introduction to the Dark Web. Dr. Goodison is the Deputy Director and Senior Research Criminologist at the PERF where he leads initiatives on data collection, research, program evaluation, and police use of technology.

Specifics he tackled in this webinar are:

• Understanding what the dark web is – what it is in technical terms, contrasting it with the surface and deep web, how to access it, what can be found within, and how it creates anonymity.
• How the dark web was originally created with noble intentions to provide secure means of communication and access to information.
• The bad side of the dark web that gave rise to criminal activity enabled by the general population’s unfamiliarity with it and the layers of encryption in this platform.
• The challenges that law enforcement face when it comes to dark web investigations.
  • Lack of awareness, literacy, and skill on the technology.
  • The distinct characteristic of the technology that prevents tracing who is committing illegal activity and where it is being done.
  • The complexity of investigation in a ‘place’ where there are no archiving and no clear-cut jurisdictional lines.
• Case studies of the two of the biggest dark web marketplace seizures that illustrate how traditional detective work, technical skills and inter-agency collaboration can yield large-scale successes and takedown million-dollars’ worth of illegal trades.
• The NIJ’s effort through its workshops to bridge the gap for law enforcement to better handle dark web crimes through skills, standards, resources, and best practices.
• How doxing is done on the dark web.

Resourced and Handouts

• PERF Report: The Changing Nature of Crime and Criminal Investigations (Jan 2018)
• Identifying Law Enforcement Needs for Conducting Criminal Investigations Involving Evidence on the Dark Web

Audience Comments

• “I learned a lot. This is not a training topic that I have ever had a chance to visit. I would like to learn more on the Human Trafficking side of things.” — Aaron
• “He really made the topics approachable (e.g. using layperson language) while maintaining the depth of concepts. Really a fantastic presentation. I enjoyed it.” — Anita
• “I liked that he talked about LE takeover and showed what it looked like in addition to the meat and potatoes of what the Dark Web is and what purposes it serves.” — Sarah
• “A good overview of the Dark Web and case studies. I am one of the 2% that was “very familiar”. I always learn something new.  …I learn a lot from the questions other folks ask in these events.” — Frank