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A Democratic Licence to Operate
1.22
A small portion of the deep web, known as the ‘dark web’, is only accessible via special
browser software such as The Onion Router (Tor). Like the original Internet, Tor is the
result of research conducted by the US government with the original purpose of protecting
intelligence communications online. It was promulgated by the State Department to
help dissidents avoid the surveillance of authoritarian governments around the world.
The software maintains the privacy of both the source and the destination of data and
the people who access it. It does this in part by routing connections through servers
around the world, making the IP address of the user much harder, if not virtually
impossible, to trace.
1.23
The existence of Tor and other similar technologies has thereby allowed the dark web
to develop and users to maintain anonymity online. This has positive and negative
implications. On the one hand, it allows individuals to circumvent censorship and access
websites blocked by authoritarian regimes, as well as share confidential and sensitive
information more securely and anonymously. This anonymity, however, also offers
advantages to those undertaking criminal activities online.
1.24
In particular, Tor allows people access to so-called ‘hidden’ services. The most infamous
of these sites was Silk Road, a black-market bazaar, where illegal drugs and other illicit
goods and services were regularly bought and sold by the site’s users. Other dark-web
sites specialise in selling malware to hackers and enabling child pornography to be
exchanged. During the visit of the ISR Panel to the Metropolitan Police, senior officers
expressed concern not only at the use of such dark-web sites, but also about increased
levels of online encryption, particularly as cyber-crime is now a volume crime.31
Encryption
1.25
Encryption is the process of converting information into an unreadable form, so that
only someone with the decryption key can read it. Encryption has been fundamental
to the development of major Internet services. Numerous online activities, from
sending e-mails to shopping and banking transactions, depend on encryption to ensure
security and maintain consumer confidence. For example, web browsers are able to
encrypt credit-card details when a user is making a purchase using a protocol for secure
communications called HTTPS; when this is enabled, a small padlock appears in the
corner of the browser and the website address starts with https://.
31. ISR visit to the Metropolitan Police, April 2015. The Association of Chief Police Officers
(ACPO) defines volume crime as: any crime which, through its sheer volume, has a
significant impact on the community and the ability of the local police to tackle it. Volume
crime often includes priority crimes such as street robbery, burglary and vehicle-related
criminality, but can also apply to criminal damage or assaults. See National Policing
Improvement Agency, ‘Practice Advice on the Management of Priority and Volume Crime
(The Volume Crime Management Model)’, 2nd edition, 2009.