Trainer Fuel – The Dark Web

What Law Enforcement Needs to Know About the Dark Web

In this Trainer Fuel we’re going to focus on the Dark Web.  As cybercrime becomes more commonplace agencies of all sizes have Dark Web users in their jurisdiction.  While not everyone who uses the Dark Web does so for sinister reasons a lot of crime happens there.

Here are a few articles and blog posts to add to your weekly reading time.  These are quick reads that bring together a variety of sources of information related to the Dark Web.

1. [VIDEO] Understanding The Dark Web

Highly recommended if you have 2-hour to dedicate to learning about this technology.  The IRS put on a webinar with law enforcement Dark Web specialists.  Mr. James Daniels, a special agent in the IRS criminal investigation division goes into great detail while discussing the Dark Web in a way law enforcement can appreciate.  

2. Dark Web 101 – What every agency ought to know

We’ll start with this one.  It’s the 101 – all the basics.  It differentiates between the deep web and the dark web.  The deep web refers to any part of the internet that isn’t discoverable by a search engine. But that doesn’t mean it’s suspicious — there are plenty of sites you visit in your day-to-day browsing that fall into this category.  On the dark web you’ll find the kind of marketplaces that ply their trade in illicit wares — what security researcher Brian Krebs calls the “hidden crime bazaars that can only be accessed through special software that obscures one’s true location online.”

3. Real-World Vignettes of Dark Web Criminals

As trainers being able to use realistic vignettes, stories, and scenarios bring our training to life.  These are five stories of some of the worst Dark Web crimes from the child pornography rings of Peter Scully and Shannon Grant McCoole to the drug trader Ross Ulbrict, and the identity thief
Hieu Minh Ngo this list will get you started with some real-world stories of criminals on the Dark Web.

4. 7 ways that LE is using the Darkweb to fight crime: 

Police all over the world have deployed a wide array of different techniques to identify and ultimately convict dark web drug dealers, weapon buyers, child pornographers, and more in the past several years. If anything, law enforcement agencies have become more accustomed to working in this space.  Is your agency involved in Dark Web operations?  

  • Undercover operations
  • Hacking
  • Open source information
  • Mass surveilance
  • Digging through seized data
  • Following the money
  • Postal system

5.  A Deep Web InfoGraphic

Crime has a new face, and what’s most worrying to investigators across the globe is that it is anonymous. How do police organizations catch criminals who are nameless, faceless and virtually invisible? This is a question that police agencies around the world are considering and taking action against. This link takes you to an infographic from Norwich University.