The Double-Edged Sword of the Dark Web: Its Implications for Medicine and Society

Excerpt

The interconnected network (Internet) can be imagined as an iceberg that has three layers: (1) the “surface web” that can be reached via conventional search engines like Google; (2) the “deep web” that is made of entities such as transactional databases and password-protected email accounts, which are supported by logins and are not indexed in search engines. These two layers can be reached via regular Internet browsers. The third layer is the “dark web” or “the dark side of deep web” that is only accessible by unique browsers, such as Tor (“The Onion Router”). Data and persons are anonymous in the dark web, where commerce takes place by cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, and cannot be traced easily by the governments. These two features make the dark web, a perfect place for illicit transactions, such as trade of private medical information, illicit drugs, and weapons (biological, nuclear, chemical, etc.), as well as organ trafficking and many other illegal activities. To make its magnitude clearer, in 2017, it was estimated that only 4% of the web was available on the surface web, and the remaining 96%, with 7.9 zettabytes, belonged to the dark web.¹ Below, we will briefly present some of the activities that occur in the dark web. …