The Research Pirates of the Dark Web • Hacker News Board

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#31

Post by apozem » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 5:32 PM UTC

anc84 wrote: post #5

> the dark web, a part of the Internet often associated with drugs, weapons, and child porn. Indeed, due to journalists perpetuating that meme on and on again. Thanks for strengthening the bad image, Atlantic.

"The researchers, who have been studying and writing about encryption policy, sniffed around with a Tor browser and found 1,547 out of 5,205 total websites live on the dark web engaging in illegal activity."

It is one of the most common ways for distributing those three things, so yes, that "meme" is correct.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3031661/internet/drugs-g...

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#32

Post by torthrowappp » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 5:36 PM UTC

captainmuon wrote: post #29

lucastx wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You pasted a HTTPS address, but the server doesn't answer to HTTPS (it is somewhat redundant when you use onion services anyway). The correct one is http://scihub22266oqcxt.onion/

It's not redundant; if someone sets up a malicious exit node they can view all your traffic, unless it is encrypted e.g. by SSL. Of course for this kind of site that is not so important, but you shouldn't use any kind of site where you log in or enter sensitive information over Tor without HTTPS.

It's fully redundant for .onion sites. Traffic destined for them never goes through exit nodes. It is only ever encrypted in a way that is readable only by the specific .onion destination.

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#33

Post by torthrowappp » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 5:37 PM UTC

apozem wrote: post #31

anc84 wrote: post #5

> the dark web, a part of the Internet often associated with drugs, weapons, and child porn. Indeed, due to journalists perpetuating that meme on and on again. Thanks for strengthening the bad image, Atlantic.

"The researchers, who have been studying and writing about encryption policy, sniffed around with a Tor browser and found 1,547 out of 5,205 total websites live on the dark web engaging in illegal activity." It is one of the most common ways for distributing those three things, so yes, that "meme" is correct. http://www.networkworld.com/article/3031661/internet/drugs-g...

I'm surprised 3/4 aren't illegal!

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#34

Post by gwern » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 5:46 PM UTC

Estragon wrote: post #17

Has anyone successfully found something useful which they couldn't find elsewhere using this tool? I tried it on a few things yesterday and was disappointed.

I would say easily a third the time I need a paper, I'll have to get it through Libgen, and especially if a paper is new or published through Elsevier or Nature. (If you've read through my comments and noticed me posting Dropbox links to fulltext PDFs - Libgen in action.) It's also good for older papers pre-2000 where it's unlikely the author has put up a copy or someone else has hosted it, and finally, it's good for getting finalized copies of papers as published since preprints often change quite a bit (economics papers in particular seem to spend years hanging around going through many versions which can change conclusions dramatically).

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#35

Post by ___ab___ » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 7:23 PM UTC

dawnbreez wrote: post #26

anc84 wrote: post #5

> the dark web, a part of the Internet often associated with drugs, weapons, and child porn. Indeed, due to journalists perpetuating that meme on and on again. Thanks for strengthening the bad image, Atlantic.

To be fair, they do have a thriving market for PayPal accounts and money laundering. DEAR NSA: THE FACT THAT I RESEARCHED THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU GET TO KICK MY DOOR DOWN NOW. THANK YOU.

You are aware that the NSA doesn't kick down anyone's door, and that any SIGINT intercepts are accompanied with a message that they can't be used in criminal prosecution, right?

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#36

Post by sevensor » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 7:31 PM UTC

friendzis wrote: post #16

crazzzyraccoon wrote: post #10

Why are the academics forced to publish their papers through these paywalls? Hosting a PDF on the university website seems cheeper than going through these publishers. Are these university imposed rules? Are they forced to go through these publishers if they want their paper peer reviewed and published in journals?

To put it short: Academic "weight" works much like google - the more citations paper has, the higher it is ranked. Of course a citation from local university journal (probably every university has at least one) is worth much, much less than a citation from Nature. It is calculated from Impact Factor, that is in turn calculated from number of citations. Sort of a closed loop. This would not be too much of a problem if…

It might even be more accurate to say that google works like academic "weight" -- it's my understanding that PageRank was originally intended to rank research papers.

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#37

Post by kefka » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

I find the way TOR is used lacking. I really would like to have .Onion resolution across my whole system (in my case, I extensively use Linux). So, Here's a way to do just that:

I use a significant amount of HiddenServices to communicate back and forth with my machines. My eventual goal was to be able to process data from different geographical areas and have them inserted into MQTT via Node-Red. Until now, it was all or nothing with regards to proxy settings.

I have figured that out. For those that want to integrate seamless .onion usage across the whole of Node-Red (and every other Linux program), follow this.

get the following packages (Ubuntu, Debian)

    sudo apt-get install tor iptables dnsmasq dnsutils

Add the following to the /etc/tor/torrc file

    VirtualAddrNetworkIPv4 10.192.0.0/10
    AutomapHostsOnResolve 1
    TransPort 9040
    DNSPort 53
    DNSListenAddress 127.0.0.2

Restart TOR

    sudo service tor restart

Edit /etc/dnsmasq.conf and add the following:

    listen-address=127.0.0.1
    resolv-file=/etc/realresolv.conf
    server=/onion/127.0.0.2

Make a new file, called /etc/realresolv.conf . Add this in the file:

    nameserver 107.170.95.180
    nameserver 8.8.8.8

Restart DNSmasq:

    sudo service dnsmasq restart

Run the IPtables firewall update for redirection

    sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp -d 10.192.0.0/10 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 9040

Also, this script must be run at every boot, so add this in /etc/rc.local, ABOVE the "exit 0"

    /sbin/iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp -d 10.192.0.0/10 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 9040

Once you do those things, your whole Linux sustem will be able to resolve .onion addresses seamlessly, yet leaving alone canonical address schemes. this means that you can talk with a MQTT-out on an .onion, or control remote servers via exec node and SSH. And since you don't have to poke holes through firewalls, networking between Hidden Nodes with Node-Red sitting on top makes IoT sensor capture from remote areas (Work, home, car, hackerspace) very easy.

Of course, this does not discuss how to actually add a new hidden service You should think very hard before enabling a service: Make sure there is good authentication on them along with the newest updates. There is no determining origination on these kinds of attacks.

cite: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-networking-3/h... , Have confirmed directions work flawlessly on Ubuntu 14.04, 15.04, and 15.10 (various flavors of Ubuntu, XUbuntu, KUbuntu)

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#38

Post by dawnbreez » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

___ab___ wrote: post #35

dawnbreez wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, they do have a thriving market for PayPal accounts and money laundering. DEAR NSA: THE FACT THAT I RESEARCHED THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU GET TO KICK MY DOOR DOWN NOW. THANK YOU.

You are aware that the NSA doesn't kick down anyone's door, and that any SIGINT intercepts are accompanied with a message that they can't be used in criminal prosecution, right?

Did not know that.

Would not be surprised if some people ignore this.

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#39

Post by dawnbreez » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

aw3c2 wrote: post #28

dawnbreez wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, they do have a thriving market for PayPal accounts and money laundering. DEAR NSA: THE FACT THAT I RESEARCHED THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU GET TO KICK MY DOOR DOWN NOW. THANK YOU.

So does the "clear web"...

Fair enough.

Re: The Research Pirates of the Dark Web

#40

Post by fabulist » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 8:18 PM UTC

apozem wrote: post #31

anc84 wrote: post #5

> the dark web, a part of the Internet often associated with drugs, weapons, and child porn. Indeed, due to journalists perpetuating that meme on and on again. Thanks for strengthening the bad image, Atlantic.

"The researchers, who have been studying and writing about encryption policy, sniffed around with a Tor browser and found 1,547 out of 5,205 total websites live on the dark web engaging in illegal activity." It is one of the most common ways for distributing those three things, so yes, that "meme" is correct. http://www.networkworld.com/article/3031661/internet/drugs-g...

You think the most common way to distribute drugs, weapons, and child porn is over Tor hidden services? I'm incredibly skeptical.

Doubtless a significant percentage of child porn is distributed that way, but I'm under the impression they prefer to use Tor to access encrypted blobs others host for them, like on Usenet. I've met many drug users, but only two of them were even aware of hidden services. And however many guns are sold on hidden services will never compare to the number purchased by the US military, or sold at gun conventions, etc.