THEME & SUB-THEMES : DIGITAL VICTIMIZATION

TITLE OF THE PAPER : VICTIMIZATION ON THE DARK WEB

AUTHOR NAME : G . SANJAY, 4th YEAR, B.BA.L.LB (HONS)

CO-AUTHOR NAME : R . VIJAY ASKASH, 4th YEAR, B.A.LL.B (HONS)

INSTITUTION NAME : TAMILNADU Dr. AMBEDKAR LAW

UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE,

IN LAW, CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU.

E-Mail. Id : san1142002@gmail.com

vijayakash19@gmail.com

MOBILE NUMBER : 8524066612 , 9952230859

 SYNOPSIS

• INTRODUCTION
• HISTORY OF THE DARK WEB
• FUTURE OF THE DARK WEB
• ACTIVITIES ON THE DARK WEB – LEADS TO VICTIMIZATION
• LAWS RELATED TO DARK WEB CRIMES AND PROTETTION OF VICTIMS
• STATISTICAL DATA OF DARK WEB CRIMES AND VICTIMS
• MODUNS OPERANDI: TO PREVENT VICTIMS OF DARK WEB CRIMES
• MAJOR CYBER CRIME ACTIVITIES IN HISTORY OF DARK WEB
• MECHANISM: SAFETY USE OF DARK WEB FOR LEGAL ACTIVITIES
• CONCLUSION
• SUGGESTIONS
• REFERENCES
 ABSTRACT
“There is fetishization of victimization in our culture. And I just am not
interested in victimhood”
- Alan ball

In era of Digitalization, technology has been advanced as well as developed to an extent where
crimes are opened to numerous vulnerabilities. Cyberspace crimes have higher chance of
fundamental attributional error and victim facilitation as the crime is solely based on digital
platform. There is diverse classification of cybercrimes which commonly includes
Cyberterrorism, Cybersex trafficking, drug trafficking, Child pornography, Cyber Bullying and
people who had been victims of these crimes affected by behavioral and psychological changes
mostly likely with post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive behaviors, suicidal tendencies. In
India cybercrimes are covered by the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Indian Penal Code,
1860.

People have right to appeal under section 43A of IT Act for wrong done by means of
cyberattack. Most advent Cybercrimes are held through the help of Dark Web. According to
National Crime Record Bureau 136 cybercrime cases are recorded every day in 2020 and
according to Internet Security Statistics 2,244 times daily hackers attack systems worldwide that
is roughly every half a minute, but only less than 12% of cybercrime cases are solved in India
and most of the cases are been under investigation. On approx. scale 59% of Indian adults mostly
disenfranchised minorities fell as victims to these Digital crimes and majority of cases are gone
unreported owing to the victim reluctance and fear of defamation.

This paper is about the cybercrime and how victims are affected by these crimes and what leads
to Cybervictimization, behavioral and psychological changes of the victims. It has also focused
and collectively studied on India’s anti E-crime legislation, Cybercrime Prevention Act, 2012
and various laws relating to prevention of Cybercrimes and how people can be prevented from
victimized from Digital crimes on the dark web under the Title – “Victimization on the Dark
Web”

KEY WORDS: Fundamental attributional error, Victim Facilitation, National Crime Record
Bureau, Internet Security Statistics, Cyberspace, Cybervictimization, E-crime legislation.
INTRODUCTION

The “dark web - Internet behind the internet” is the content that exists in the Dark Nets 1, which is
accessible only through specific software, configurations, and, authorization. In general people
don’t know the dark side of the hidden internet. Due to the high level of encryption and anonymity
in the Dark web, it is the portal of Heaven for every Cybercrimes Activities such as Child
Pornography, Cyber Terrorism, Cybersex Trafficking, illicit drug websites, Dark net market, red
room and much more illicit activities. In every cybercrime attack large group of people is disturbed
mentally or physically due to loss of their privacy and confidential information.

As of December 2020, the number of active Tor sites is estimated at 76,300 and now at present, it
is drastically increased to a high extent and over 2 million people use the Tor browser every day
globally. India shares 26 percent of daily Tor users ironically, victims also increased. In India using
the Dark web is not illegal and our Indian Constitution gives Right to Access the Internet under
Article 21. Totally 45 percent of Tor completely hosts illicit Activities by which people get
victimized by the dark web crimes2. There are only 6 sections in Information Technology Act 3,
2000 relating to cybercrimes in India and there should Amendment made by making specific and
diverse laws for cybercrimes.

The dark web is only comprised of illegal sites? No, the Dark web has legitimate sites also but
mostly Dark web is known for its negative aspect because regularly people become a victim of
criminal Activities that take place on the Dark web. People are suffering such as cybersex
trafficking and the selling and transporting of illegal weapons to countries where war is already
suppressing the economic growth and causing various problematic situations.
In this study, we will see that how victimized people are granted their remedies and weather the
constitution provide proper remedies for people affected by Cybercrime Activities. Eviction of the
Dark web is dealt with as trifling but in the present scenario of Digital civilization, it can be clearly

1
Researchers David Goldschlag, Mike Reed, and Paul Syverson at the U.S. Naval Research Lab (NRL) developed a
dark net for U.S. Navel.
2
Ivan, General Tor statistics Facts, Tor stat, (July.21,2022, 4:23 PM), https://truelist.co/blog/tor-stats/.
3
Hereinafter referred to as IT Act,2000.
stated that a man with knowledge of the internet and hacking, with the help of the dark web, can
victimize the whole internet Cyber world.

HISTORY OF THE DARKWEB

A few pioneers built the dark web into what it is today, an underbelly of illegal internet. The idea
of secret communication without phone connections between the military officers made to think
of the experimental computer in the year 1960 and known as Advance Research Projects Agency
Network (ARPANET)4 and later become as Dark Web. In 1970 first online illegal transaction took
place using ARPANET. 5

Stanford students used ARPANET accounts at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence

Laboratory for commercial transactions of marijuana with their counterparts at MIT. Later in 1983,
the ARPANET is classified into two categories MILNET for defense and military. And
ARPANET for use by the civilians later became the internet. After the popularity of the internet,
most people started to use the internet and their question was raised where to store the data
privately? Here began the rise of Data Heavens where people stored every data in 1991 internet
became publicly available and that is the period of the internet boom. At the same time, the Tor
private browsing network which is now worlds widely used to browse the dark web is at the stage
of development.

A browser called FREENET is released in 2000, In which people can share, publish, and browse
anonymously but it doesn’t have much responsibility and hasn’t received any popularity from
people. Later, the Tor browsing network is introduced in the year 2002 which made excessive
changes in the history of the internet and it gained more popularity in the underworld internet
compared to I2P and Freenet. The release of the Tor browser as user-friendly it leads to a rise in
various dark and illegal content websites. Now the issue of transferring money for illegal
transactions raises as using the credit card and pay pal account will be paper trails and hindrance
to anonymity. Therefore, Cryptocurrency was introduced at the same time hence, the issue of

4
Founder of ARPANET – J.C.R. Licklider.
5
Erica Kastner, early days, History of the dark web [Time Line], (21. July, 2022, 4:56 PM),
https://www.soscanhelp.com/blog/history-of-the-dark-web.
illegal transactions was settled. The first bitcoin is mined by ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ effectively
starting a revolution in the first online illegal transaction. The dark web also played a key role in
Arab Spring. Various chain activities are continued on the dark web as major Dark net mark
Silkroad was shut down by the officials in 2011, Snowden Revolution in 2013, widely used child
pornography Playpen was shut down in 2015 and till date various chain of activities is being held
in the dark web and unless anonymity is required for illegal activities dark web is in demand and
shut down of dark web is impractical.

FUTURE OF THE DARKWEB

In the present digital era, the Dark web is a home for child pornography, Drugs, Steroids, weapons,
and other illegal hacking services. It is not so far to access by people nowadays, just one illicit
thought of a man can uses the Dark web in a hazardous way. Therefore, the future of the dark web
is uncertain.

ACTIVITIES ON THE DARK WEB - LEAD TO VICTIMIZATION

These activities are the root to tumble people as victims and cause Cyber trauma and psychological
disorders. Here is a question, anonymity is only the key to host the illegal content in dark web? It
can be said that anonymity is one of the reasons to host illegal content on the dark web but not
totally. We cannot deny the fact that anonymity plays a major role in hosting illegal content in
dark web.

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY:
Child pornography is illegal in India and most countries, only a few countries don’t have any laws
against child pornography. A statistical report states that highly hosted content on the dark web is
Child pornography. Child pornography is difficult to access in Clearnet but on the dark web, it is
easy to access child abuse content. There are several sites viz, playpen, Boys town, etc., which
allow dark web users to access child pornography, sexualized torture, killing of animals, and
revenge porn content to access easily. The website called Lolita City was recently taken down by
the authority and contained 100 GB of data containing child pornography and 15,000 children
were victimized. Recently German intelligence took down one of the largest child pornography
sites called Boys town which has 4,00,000 registered users. Mostly girl child is been trafficked
and raped, which are recorded as videos and uploaded on the website. Many children are sold in
the online black market after recording the video. There is no proper law enforcement to govern
the activity. Child pornography and child grooming or exploitation are punishable in India under
section 67B of the IT Act, 2000.

TERRORISM:
How dark web helps in terrorism? Provide Forum for terrorist propaganda, guiding information,
funding. Cyber Terrorism is developed along with weakness of the technology. When the dark
web emerged, terrorists have an anonymous platform for their communication and an easy way to
raise funds to buy weaponry. There are certain fraudulent websites claimed to use by ISIL 6,
including a fake one seized in Operation Onymous. The Rawti Shax Islamist group was once found
to be using Dark Web to recruit Islamic members and hire shooters for accomplishing orders of
ISIL, which caused the death of thousands of people in few countries.

Cyber terrorism is achieving ideological or political gains through threat or intimidation. People
in various means were hacked and threatened with hacking technologies by the use of the dark
web and the government promoted different agencies Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and
Central Intelligence Agency (CBI) to pull down cyber terrorism. According to the (UNODC)7,
there should be a universal agreement between the countries for the investigations of international
attacks by cyber terrorists.

Cyber terrorism is dealt with under section 66F of the IT Amendment Act,2008. Several events
state cyber terrorism is a threat to a country as well as its people. Few incidents viz, ISP system
damaged-1996, ethnic Tamil guerrillas attack-1998, Cyber Anakin attack-2022, Ukraine attack
against the Russian computers at the time of war-2022. These attacks hinder maintaining peace
and harmony among peoples and countries.

ILLICIT DRUG WEBSITES:

6
ISIL – Islamic state of Iraq and Levant.
7
UNODC - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The dark web is known to be a lawless Jungle as any illegal activities can be made through it with
anonymity. Every year approx. $21.1 Million revenue is generated by the drug market viz., Hydra,
Versus, Empire market, Cannazon, Silk Road8 on the dark web. Illegal drugs such as Fentanyl,
Stimulants, Cannabis, heroin, MDMA, etc., are highly hazardous drugs that slowly kill a person
on regular consumption. These drugs are easily available on the dark web such as buying a regular
product on amazon and flip kart. Nearly lakhs of people consume illicit drugs for their own
consumption and for other illegal purposes through the dark web. Whereas regular consumption
of illicit drugs leads to severe issues in the person's physical and mental health and they would be
addicted to the Drugs and incur much loss and to recover from addiction the only way is to befall
in drug Rehabilitation center. In India there are certain Acts regulating the sale of Drugs and their
uses such as the Drug and Cosmetic Act, 1940 and the Drugs and Magic Remedies and
Objectionable Advertisement Act, 1945 therefore, it clearly states that no electronic commerce site
in India has the license to sell illicit drugs. Narcotic Substances and Psychotropic Substances
Act,1985 also deals with the consumption and manufacturing, and movement of Drugs in India.
The dark web drug market victimizes numerous drug consumers by providing an easy platform to
buy and sell illicit drugs which should be pulled down by the appropriate government or by the
Bureau of International Narcotics.

CYBERSEX TRAFFICKING:
It is a billion-dollar illicit industry! Globally streaming sexual abuse content to various users who
pay for it through bitcoins on the dark web. This contains webcam sex tourism or abuse or
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) facilitates sex exploitation. Cybersex
trafficking is distinct from other sex crimes as the victims in trafficked into a Cybersex Dens and
sexually harassed or raped which is live streamed on the web. Some people are also drugged for
several days and are regularly used as a sex toy in a Cybersex Den. Women, children, and people
who are below the poverty line are being mostly victims of Cybersex Trafficking 9. Victims have
been denied, forced to perform while sick, beaten to death, they have contracted diseases, and
extremely tortured. The number of victims of Cybersex Trafficking is unknown and the location
of Cybersex Dens is unidentifiable by the investigators. Many of the victims are forced to

8
United states of America v. Ross William Ulbricht, No. 15- 1815-cr (2d Cir. May 31, 2017).
9 Chowdury and Others v Greece, Application No. 21884/15, (30 March 2017)
prostitute. Victims despite getting remedies still are being prosecuted in certain jurisdictions. There
is no law specifically governing Cybersex trafficking in India.

UNVERIFIED CONTENT (RED ROOM):

A red room is similar to a place where all the person's pessimistic dreams come true. It is the most
tremendous hazard on the dark web. Now there is a question whether Red Room is real. There is
no conformity in the existence of the red room but for dark web users, it is a place where people
will be trafficked and tortured in red room with live streaming for an audience of viewers through
the Dark web. These viewers sometimes vote or bid crypto coins seeking the form of torture the
kidnapped person should undergo. Victims will be suffering the most painful death and torture and
they will be as unidentified bodies on the Missing list.

DARKNET MARKETS:
The dark net is the commercial market on the dark web. Every Illicit Product such as drugs,
counterfeit documents, stolen credit cards, steroids, weaponry, Cyber arms, and unlicensed
pharmaceuticals are traded in the dark net market. All products are being traded to unauthorized
persons in order to raise the revenue of individual traders on the dark web which causes several
losses across the world and creates a variety of issues among different countries like War,
Economy loss, terrorism, medical Crimes, addiction to drugs by children, cyberattack on bank
accounts and robbing of government treasury. These Darknet markets should be shut down by the
cyber security officials and appropriate authorities by any means of action and to stop the
continuity of easy accessibility to illicit products on the dark web which ensures peace and
harmony throughout the globe and helps people not becoming indirect victim of Darknet market.

LAWS RELATED TO DARKWEB CRIMES AND PROTECTION OF

VICTIMS

Cybercrime is a growing level threat to all countries. 156 countries (80 percent) have enabled
legislation for cybercrimes and it varies by region. Every Incident has its own consequences as
such every crime has its own punishments. All crimes are governed by laws whereas acting against
the law is strictly punishable under various sections. There are specific acts and laws for
cybercrimes in India. When a person is restricted to access the internet his Freedom of Speech and
Expression is deprived and he has the legal right against such actions.

In India, there are no stringent laws to govern cybercrimes. loopholes in the dark web being a
unique challenge in our country. We have only 6 sections relating to cybercrimes in the IT Act,
200010. MEMEX project admins to build a comprehensive internet map and it helps in developing
a technology to track down the websites posting prostitution and trafficking ads on the internet
which helps in the investigation of human trafficking.

A recent study, by the Journal of Family Violence, shows most people involved in child
pornography are also involved in Child molestation in India. The Acts and Provisions which
specifically deal with child pornography and related crimes are Section 67(B) of IT Act, 2000, and
Section 14 and 15 of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012 these
sections exclusively deal with crimes of child pornography.
Most of the International drug dealing in India is held through the Dark web. Under section 24 of
the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. Whoever imports drugs from outside
India is punishable under this Act. Using the Dark web is not illegal in India but committing a
crime on the Dark web is a crime.

The dark web is popular for its anonymity but to keep us safe from the use of the dark web is only
with the help of VPNs11. But in India, there is no specific law to specify the usage of VPNs in
India. But various countries Iraq, Turkmenistan, and Belarus completely banned the use of VPNs.
Some countries Russia, UAE, and China have restricted the use of VPNs except for Government
purposes. Such a system should be brought to India so people will not access the Dark web to
ensure their safety. Cyber blog India, is a blog, which states under the CHAPTER-VI of IT Act,
2000 the government may make authorization to Mandatory Charges for VPNs Registration in
India.

10
Surbhi Jindal, what is consider to be illegal while dark web, laws relating to dark web in India, (26. July, 2022,
3:25 PM), https://blog.ipleaders.in/laws-relating-dark-web-india/.
11
VPNs – Virtual private network discovered by Gurdeep Singh- pall in the year 1996.
On the dark web, people or the government can purchase prohibited weapons in a short period
which jeopardizes society. Whoever carries or uses prohibited ammunition or prohibited arms will
be punishable under section 25 of the Act, 1959. There are no precise laws for governing and
protecting the safety of dark web users. Those above-mentioned laws are a few remedies for
victims and provide punishment against perpetrators on the dark web.

STATISTICAL DATA OF DARK WEB CRIMES AND VICTIMS

The dark web is a minute part of the internet but the illegal content of the dark web is comparatively
larger than the whole illegal content in Clearnet. Statistical data on the dark web is to provide a
piece of factual information about it. The victims of the dark web range from small SMEs to large
Global Enterprise level organizations. The health care sector is most exploited and exposed which
is approximately 24 percent. The space adopted by the dark web is just 6 percent of the whole
internet. In approx. 30,000 illegal sites are been hosted on the dark web. For the past three years,
the activity on the dark web is increased by 300 percent that covers from 2017 to 2020. In 2019
nearly 30 percent of Americans used the dark web and its data shows that 26 percent have used it
on a daily basis and a balance of 7 percent used it on weekly basis. Ransomware attacks are very
frequent, for every 11 seconds, a Ransomware attack takes place in 2022 12. The total damage of
ransomware attacks in 2021 was nearly 20 million dollars and crores of people’s and thousands of
companies’ monetary assets have been damaged and unrecovered from attackers on the dark web.
In general, the dark web is not only a source for a cyberattack, there are different options and
browsers for Cyberattack. According to dark web statistics, a cyberattack takes place every 39
seconds and 2,244 computers are attacked on an average everyday basis. The central statistics
office states in the year 2019, the most targeted victims on the dark web are big companies. There
are 38 active dark web marketplaces.

The illegal content is listed on various websites on the dark web. Although 1 percent of listings on
the dark web is firearms, the most commonly listed gun there are pistols, making up 84 percent of
this category. The selling of illicit drugs and related substances makes up around 59 percent of the

12
Purplesec, the cost of cybercrime, Cyber security Statistics the ultimate list of stats and trends for 2022,
(27.July,2022, 5:27 PM), https://purplesec.us/resources/cyber-security-statistics/.
dark web. Illegal financing takes up around 6.3 percent. Fraud and counterfeit listings are around
17 percent in the dark net markets. The ‘non-illicit’ or unknown category of the dark web makes
around 22.6 percent. Statistical data on Terrorism on the dark web reveals that there is 55,000
extremist group on the dark web. The population of India has the largest per capita users of the
dark web in the world making 26 percent. Contrastingly, South America and Australia are the least
users of the dark web. The number of victims whose data is leaked on websites rose 85 percent in
2021, to 2,566 organizations, according to unit 42’s analysis13. 60 percent of leak site victims were
from America, 31 percent from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and 9 percent from the Asia-
Pacific region.

There are several victims harmed because of the Dark web directly or indirectly in either way.
Therefore, being in the actual perception of damage and being pulled to an unstable or baneful
condition in their life. The statistical data of whole victims of the dark web cannot be measured or
counted due to the fear of the maximum number of victims revealing that they were affected by
the use of the dark web as many of them are thinking using of the dark web is illegal in India.

MODUS OPERANDI: TO PREVENT VICTIMS OF DARKWEB CRIMES

Are the users of the dark web and other people are prevented before they become the victim of the
dark web crimes? The answer is ‘No’, many of them were unknown about the criminal activities
on the Dark web and were the victim of the attackers of the dark web. Various precautions should
be taken by the respective government or authority in every Country. People should be known
about the dark side of the dark net and use it with all the safety measures, most dark web crimes
are committed due to human error and negligence of the safety measures of the internet users.
There is no proper awareness to the people about the crimes and illegal content in dark web and
how they can be affected by use of dark web. The initiative should be taken by the appropriate
government or Anti-Cybercrime organizations to give full knowledge of cybercrimes on the
Internet and the Dark web.

13
The unit 42 mission - is to protect the digital world from cyberattacks and it is an incident response service.
A survey from the centre for international governance innovation asked over 24000 countries their
opinion on the dark web, and it found that 74 percent of respondents thought the dark web should
be shut down. Hiding the fact that journalists, human rights, protestors, and whistle-blowers use
the dark web to state oppression, protests, or announce corruption to light (CIGI 14,2016).

There should be a certain method or a way to prevent victims of the dark web and it should help
the people to their utmost from being victimized by cyber criminals or attackers on the dark web.

In my ideas, there should be a thoroughly focus on these areas as follows 15:

• Specially trained officers and investigators should be selected to spot the relevant evidence
for the crimes on the dark web. These trained officers should have full knowledge of the
Internet and laws of IT Act,2000 of India and as per respective laws for other countries.
They should have experience with hacking and related tools to track the evidence.
• There is no healthy relationship in sharing information between various government
agencies and aided organizations. Therefore, improving information sharing among
agencies Domestically and Internationally is to be concerned.
• Every crime has its evidence and as in dark web crimes the evidence is left back on the
Internet and it can be only traced back by advanced tools and software. So, standard
forensics should be used and there is a need for advancement in forensic development to
track the evidence on the dark web.
• Facilitating and amending specific laws to govern dark web illegal activities and inspecting
the crimes on the dark web and give proper remedies and punishments to the victims and
cyber criminals respectively.
• Research on crime connections to help law enforcement recognize and address both highly
visible traditional crime and less visible crime on the dark web.
• Ensuring passwords of accounts and digital lockers are very standard and not be easily
breached by third parties. Run a dark web scan regularly and turn on do not track mode.
Social media networks should not be used on dark web browsers. Ensure you are not

14
Centre for International Governance Innovation – founded in the year 2001.
15
National Institute of Justice, RAND corporation Report, Taking on the dark web, (29. July, 2022, 10:42 AM),
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/taking-dark-web-law-enforcement-experts-id-investigative-needs.
 sharing location data while using dark web. Combine Tor and Tail OS while using dark
web for legitimate search it provides multi-layer security protection to the user.

These should be implemented and enforced in every country for the development of Cyber
security. Certain frameworks should be framed and constituted to protect and prevent people
become victims of dark web crimes. The operation should be well defined in the. Awareness about
danger in dark web and privacy leak due to use of dark web should be shared among the people of
all countries. People should be informed about the pre cautions before using the dark web. people
should be known about all related laws and how the law applicable in the use of dark web. special
agencies and forces should be built up and formed to protect the people from illicit activities of
dark web. NGOs16 and other institutions should come forward to educate the illiterate people about
the complications and risk in the use of Dark web.

Constantly, the dark web attacker’s focus on high revenue companies, low security governments,
in the case of cyber trafficking and child pornography the targets are child and women who is in
less age category. So, they should be conscious about the spam links and mails. They should be
strictly restricted from use of Dark web, even though they have constitutional right to access the
internet considering the security and privacy of the child and women it should be restricted. It can
be questioned that restricting a person against his constitutional right for their security and privacy
is a crime? According to constitution, it is a crime but there should be proper amendment or change
in the restriction of dark web by the users to prevent the people from falling into the crimes of dark
web.

MAJOR CYBERCRIME ACTIVITIES IN HISTORY OF DARK WEB

Most of the major cybercrimes and remarkable instances in dark web are took place in the year
2000 – 2007. These attacks involved high technologies and more intellectual hacking
professionals. Many businesses are affected and faced huge down fall and loss because of these
attacks and people become victims and suffered pain.
The crimes are as follows:

16
NGOs – Non-Governmental Organizations (The Cyber Veer Foundation aims to create cyber secure nation).
 • Evite Blackmailing – Evite is company which creates digital social invitations to the
customers and it has huge date stored in their server and in the year 2009 there was data
breach to all data in the server which is estimated as ten million people’s data. it was hacked
by attackers known as Gnosticplayers. they asked for ransom of $2000 from evite but the
ransom is not paid hence, the data are leaked in various dark web sites by the hackers.
• Popularity of Steak and Cheese – In Clearnet we cannot get access to certain restricted
videos and pictures but in Dark web the website known as Steak and Cheese people can
get access and watch lively to contents such as violent videos, live rape videos of children
and women, cannibalism pictures, murder, child abuse, etc., and in the year 2000 these
made the site much popular in dark web.
• Egregious case of Peter Scully – this character is the most horrifying person in the dark
web, he is basically an Australian and now being accused in Philippines prison with live
imprisonment for his activities such as sex trafficking, Rape by Sexual Assault, sending
child pornography, torture, and murder. His acts are so terrible and now he is not a threat
to society.
• Edward Snowden17 – He is a former NSA and CIA employee who later turned into a
whistleblower in 2013 for leaking information about population surveillance public.
• Hieu Ming Ngo’s Capture18 - He is the person who has involved in highest identity thefts,
wire fraud, device fraud in the dark web and he profited around $2 million dollars back in
2012, but caught by US Secret Service and prisoned but latest news of him was he got
released and been working for Vietnam’s National Cyber Security Centre (VNCS) as a
technical expert.19
The recent ongoing news about dark web are Ukrainian Hacker sold account credentials in Dark
web, Ransomware surge increases global data breach by 13 percent, Dark web awash with
breached credentials, Doping: Dark web poses risks for athletes looking for drugs.
These are some of the past and present vicious crimes in dark web and lakhs of people are been
victim of these crimes.

17
United states v. Moalin,10cr4246 JM (S.D. Cal. Aug. 4, 2021).
18
united states of America vs Hieu Ngo, 12-CR-144-01-PB March 3, 2014
19
Theodor porutiu, 10 most notorious case on the dark web, (29. July,2022, 4:58 PM),
https://vpnoverview.com/privacy/anonymous-browsing/notorious-dark-web-cases/.
MECHANISM: SAFETY USE OF DARK WEB FOR LEGAL ACTIVITIES
As we discussed earlier, dark web is not entirely a platform of illegal content it has legal sites too
for the use in such a case safety of the people should be considered to utmost priority. There are
some mechanisms which helps people to not be a victim of dark web crimes.
• Install Tor Compatible VPN.
• Next, Installation of Tor Browser.
• Pairing Tails or The Amnesic Incognito Live System.
• Virtual Machine.
• Private search Engine (Torch, DuckDuckGo).
• Use of Anti-virus Tool to ensure system security.
Accessing for illegal purposes may land a person in jail 20. The following mechanism ensure safety
and security of the people who use the dark web for legal purposes. This procedure should be
compulsory followed by them for the privacy and safety and not be victim of dark web crimes.

CONCLUSION
In modern digital world, privacy and protection is excessively concerned but still people obtain
privacy and protection to the appropriate extent? Barely to a certain level but this is absolute
negligence of ourself. Dark web is a place where people can get easy access to the illegal sites and
content and being a threat to them as well as others. Once people accessed dark web it’s like
themselves sharing their privacy with third parties and easily become target of cyber criminals.
Dark web is resemblance of world of cyber and technological crimes and always looking forward
to cause Cyber harms to public. People will be intensively suffering once they become victim.

From this study we can conclude that regularly large number of People, Government and
government aided institutions, Organizations, various Countries are becoming victims of dark web
crimes. Many crimes are been unreported by victims due to problem of fear and many of reported
crimes are still under investigation and at the end victims are one who suffer for their loss and

20Dr.P.V. Varavara rao v. national investigation agency, 53 Cri. Apeal-52.21 with WPs (01-02-21) J.odt, (22 Feb,
2021).
injury. Dark web crimes should be given equal priority as other cyber crimes and investigations
should considerably be momentous.

Victim of dark web crimes should be granted with immediate remedy for their loss by the
appropriate authority. In dark web there are several vicious crimes take place so according to the
act of crime which a victim is undergone has to be well acquainted and severe punishment should
be given to the cyber criminals in who commits crime. Dark web should not be accessed by
children, women, low security governmental organizations, and certain people who deals
confidential data to ensure their own safety and privacy of information. People should get more
awareness and another person should not become a victim of crimes on Dark web.

PROHIBTING USE OF DARK WEB IS NOT AN OBLIGATORY ONE BUT, PROTECTING

PEOPLE FROM BEING A CYBER VICTIM IS AN OBLIGATORY ONE!

SUGGESTIONS
• Proper and separate investigation authority should be formed and enforced in every country
only to resolve or investigate the dark web crimes and they should be provided with certain
Rights and Duties.
• Bringing proper solutions and remedies for the victims. If victim cause of crime is breach
of privacy or confidential data. The data should be removed from dark web sites and
confidential information should be secured and handed back to the victim.
• Awareness programs should be held in various places to educate maximum number of
people about the crimes and danger behind the use of dark web and how safely it should
be accessed by individuals and organizations.
• VPNs are key to anonymity in use of dark web. therefore, restriction or some laws
governing use of VPNs can be implemented so people will be monitored this can lead to
reduce crimes in dark web.
• There are no specific laws governing crimes of dark web and protecting victims of dark
web crimes. New laws should be passed to govern the activities of dark web.
• Official forum should be constituted in every country where the problems related to dark
web crimes and solutions to victims as well as how people can be secured before fall as
 victim of dark web crimes can be discussed and come to a conclusion which is
advantageous to public and Country’s cyber security.
• Use of dark web should be prohibited except for Military needs. Dark web is dispensable
for civilians or public because they have other options such as chrome, Bing more secured
browsers.
• People should have adequate knowledge on cyber laws and how a cyber law helps them to
seek their remedies.
• Each country should provide financial support to appropriate institutions in order to
improve in cyber security and cyber research projects which will demolish the cybercrimes
in dark web.
REFERENCES:

STATUTES:
• Information Technology Act, 2000 with rules and regulations, by Professional
book publishers.
• The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 with Rules, 2020,
by Commercial Law Publishers (India) Pvt. Ltd.
• The Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 with rules and
schedules, by Law and Justice Publishing Co.

BOOKS:
• Dark Web Book: Art of Invisibility by Aamer Khan; Code Academy (1 Jan
2021)
• The Darkest web: Drugs death and Destroyed Lives by Eileen Ormsby; Tantor
Media Inc (Aug 2021), Audio Book.

WEBSITES:
• https://truelist.co/blog/tor-stats/.
• https://www.soscanhelp.com/blog/history-of-the-dark-web.
• https://blog.ipleaders.in/laws-relating-dark-web-india/.
• https://vpnoverview.com/privacy/anonymous-browsing/notorious-dark-web-
cases/.