The Tor network is commonly referred to as ‘The Dark Web’ and perceived as an encrypted space to exchange illegal goods or engage in unscrupulous activities. While this is generally true, it only accounts for a specific portion of TOR users and there are legitimate case scenarios. This viewpoint is shared by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
These are three major internet regulators publicly advocating the use of Tor in certain circumstances and designated the .onion domain, for sites hosted on the Tor network. Additionally the .onion domain was described as a “Special use Domain” which enhances its legitimacy. Richard Barnes, Mozilla’s security head for Firefox told Motherboard:
“This enables the Tor .onion ecosystem to benefit from the same level of security you can get in the rest of the web,”
“It adds a layer of security on top.”
This also means that sites can be verified to see who the real owner is through SSL and TLS security certificates. Using Tor is a contentious issue as many users feel it’s a mysterious and unknown portion of the internet. Governments have overstepped the mark and intruded on people’s privacy in the last couple of years. Therefore, Tor could bring about improved privacy and protect individual’s data. Although, there are concerns about the type of individuals using ‘The Dark Web” including drug smugglers and other criminals.
Thank you Motherboard for providing us with this information.
