‘Dark Web’ thriving in SA

The Dark Web is thriving in SA, with about 8 000 people a day visiting with no risk of being traced.

The Dark Web – a vast anonymous network hidden from normal web users - is thriving in South Africa, with about 8 000 people a day visiting it to do anything from downloading child porn to buying drugs, guns and fake passports… or even to arrange murder.

Local cops have been trained and are working with law enforcement agencies across the globe - including the FBI in the US – to try and track down the secretive users of the Dark Web. So far, however, they have had no success.

Brigadier Piet Pieterse, the head of the Electronic Crime Unit of the Hawks, said it was near impossible to monitor activity by South Africans on the Dark Web.

“I think it’s extremely difficult to establish exactly what they are doing on the Dark Web,” he said.

The rising threat of the Dark Web was brought to the attention of the SAPS cyber-crime unit in April last year.

Ever since then, police officers have undergone extensive training on how to deal with the threat that the Dark Web poses.

At first glance it looks a lot like Google. But this is no ordinary web browser. A quick search through the Dark Web can expose you to a staggering array of illegal goods being traded openly online - everything from child pornography or Class-A drugs to guns, human organs and passports.

You can also watch live gruesome executions and human experimentation on orphans or homeless people, all at a price. Or even pay someone to rape a person of your choice and then watch it online.

Such purchases are so easy that they can all be done from the comfort of one’s home at the click of a button.

In some corners of the Dark Web, there are training manuals on how to firebomb and napalm people. There are even a number of sites dedicated to hiring hitmen, willing to take out anyone, including celebrities and politicians.

And it is all totally untraceable. All that is needed to operate the Dark Web is special software called Tor, which allows you to connect with what lies in the shadowy online world.

The software masks your internet identity, encrypting your data and bouncing you through a myriad worldwide Internet Protocol addresses.

Instead of PayPal or credit cards, untraceable bitcoins, a digital currency, is used.

Here, around 8 000 users are visiting the Dark Web on a daily basis, according to recent data from Tor.

Most recently, cyber criminals stole data, including nude photographs and credit card details, of millions of users of the adultery website Ashley Madison, including the data of 175 000 South Africans.

The data was then dumped on the Dark Web and is yet to be removed. “It is difficult to locate perpetrators or monitor this web because of the anonymity,” said Pieterse.

“Unlike the FBI, we can’t go into the Dark Web and pose as buyers or seller of drugs, for example, to catch the criminals. We work with intelligence we gather.”

Pieterse admits that it is easy for any South African with internet access to conduct illegal activity on the Dark Web. “Provided you know how to get access, one can easily conduct illegal activities.”

Danny Myburgh, a cyber forensics expert and managing director of Cyanre, a computer forensics lab, believes that South Africans have become increasingly active on the Dark Web.

“It’s becoming a bigger threat because more people know about it and it has become the ‘hip thing’ to do.”

Myburgh, who previously headed the computer crime investigation unit for SAPS, said that during his three years at the unit, not a single South African had been arrested for activity on the Dark Web.

“This dark corner of the internet is a playground for people that want to be rebels and deal drugs, child pornography, piracy or human trafficking.”

According to a report from Symantec cyber security, South Africa is included within the top three countries prone to cyber crime, along with China and Russia.

“The necessary structures required to prevent, detect and respond to cyber threats in South Africa are not in place,” said Manuel Corregedor, operations manager of Wolfpack Information Risk.

“There are projects under way to address these shortcomings – but not enough progress is being made.”

South Africans have become increasingly aware of the importance of privacy online, according to Corregedor. “For example, companies such as Facebook allow access to their services via the Dark Web due to the increased demand.”

“We also receive reports from South Africans who become victims on the Dark Web. One such example was where a woman was being blackmailed by her daughter’s boyfriend, who posted naked pictures of her on the Dark Web along with her address, contact numbers and ID/passport numbers.”

Two month ago the Department of Justice published the Cybercrimes and Cyber Security Bill to tighten legislation around cyber crime.

The draft bill seeks to introduce a range of new offences with explicit penalties. Corregedor believes the bill is a step in the right direction.

“However, it is not a ‘silver bullet’; we still lack the skills to catch cyber criminals.”

Saturday Star

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