The Dark Net is one of those things that either intrigues you greatly or flies right over your head, making a ‘whoosh’ sound as it passes by.

I’m guessing if you’ve come here to read this then you fall into that first category, so we’re not going to spell out what all the fuss is about in too great a detail.

Over at Vanity Fair they’ve put together a fantastic piece on the internet’s secret society, delving deeper into the lives of some of the world’s foremost hackers and the online space they inhabit.

We’re pretty sure we’re doing OK in the online security game, given that we use the best in the business, but here’s a taste of what’s out there:

Welcome to the Dark Net, a wilderness where wars are fought and hackers roam. More definitions. The Dark Net exists within the deep web, which lies beneath the surface net, which is familiar to everyone. The surface net can be roughly defined as “anything you can find through Google” or that is otherwise publicly indexed for all to see.

The deep web is deep because it cannot be accessed through ordinary search engines. Its size is uncertain, but it is believed to be larger than the surface net above it. And it is mostly legitimate…

The Dark Net occupies the basement. Its users employ anonymizing [sic] software and encryption to hide themselves as they move around. Such tools offer a measure of privacy. Whistle-blowers and political dissidents have good reason to resort to them. Criminals do, too. White fades quickly through gray and then to black in the Dark Net.

Furtive sites there offer all manner of contraband for sale—narcotics, automatic weapons, contract killings, child pornography. The most famous of these sites was Silk Road—the brainchild of Ross Ulbricht, a libertarian entrepreneur who was arrested by the F.B.I. in San Francisco in 2013 and sentenced last year to life in prison without parole.

You’ll need to settle in for the long read, but if that above has you wanting more check out their full article HERE.

[source:vanityfair]