Richa Sharma, Muskaan Grover and Vivek Jha
The dark web, the hidden and encrypted part of the internet, has emerged as a critical platform for various illicit activities, including terrorism. While originally designed to ensure privacy and anonymity for legitimate purposes, it has also become a breeding ground for extremist groups. Terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram have exploited the dark web for propaganda dissemination, recruitment, fundraising, and operational coordination. The encrypted nature of the dark web provides a secure environment for these groups to operate, evading surveillance and detection by law enforcement. This article explores the intricate relationship between the dark web and terrorism, focusing on the mechanisms utilized by terrorist organizations, applications of the dark web in their activities, and the necessary countermeasures to address this evolving threat.
What is the Dark Web?
The Internet was started as a concept termed ‘Galactic Network’ by J.C.R. Licklider of MIT in 1962 and has heavily revolutionized how communication is carried out worldwide in the past few decades. The introduction of the ‘World Wide Web’ widened applications of the Internet which was initially designed only for file sharing (Dilipraj, 2014). In today’s time, The World Wide Web (www) is categorized into three parts: the surface web, the deep web, and the dark web.
Surface Web, the first layer of the Internet is also known as visible or indexed web and is easily accessible through standard search engines. It is estimated that only 0.03% of the results are retrieved through the surface web (Kaur & Randhawa, 2020).
During the early days of the Internet, the information available was limited and could be easily indexed based on queries entered on the search engines. Dr. Jill Ellsworth in 1994, coined the phrase ‘Invisible Web’ to refer to information ‘invisible’ to the queries by the users on the search engines. The Deep Web also known as the Deep Internet or the Invisible Web forms the larger part of the Internet. (Dilipraj, 2014).
The Deep Web holds information in the form of web pages, files, images, etc that is not accessible through direct queries because it is not indexed. The content can be accessed only through specific keywords or targeted queries. Also, the content is mostly protected by security mechanisms like membership fees, logins, and passwords (Dilipraj, 2014).
Dark Web, the third layer of the internet is nothing but the deepest layer of the Deep Web. It contains information that is intentionally concealed and can be accessed only through specialized browsers (Weimann, 2015).
As the name goes, the Dark Web is not necessarily all dark. For those living under oppressive regimes, where political dissent is punished and blockage of the Internet is common, the dark web provides access to information, communication with activists, and ultimately protection from persecution. In freer societies, it acts as a means for privacy and anonymity to those wary of corporations and governments at large (Kumar & Rosenbach, 2020).
To uphold anonymity and confidentiality, the two major factors on which the dark web runs; a few techniques can be used. A proxy is a service that acts as an intermediary between the sender and the receiver of information. Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are the most commonly relied on for network tunneling. VPNs provide interconnectivity between entities belonging to virtual private networks; they are mostly used to bypass Internet censorship (Kaur & Randhawa, 2020).
Another widely known and much talked about technique is TOR. In the late 1990s, the dark web originated as a funded project by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The project aimed at creating a network that could provide anonymity and encryption ensuring safe communication of sensitive information. Recognition of its significant potential uses led to the development of the TOR (The Onion Router) Network in 2006. TOR uses an ‘onion routing’ technique in which resembling the multiple layers of an onion, data traveling in the computer networks is protected by multiple layers of encryption. Moreover, this encrypted data is passed through nodes, that is decentralized servers making it even more difficult for the data to be tracked down to its source of origin or destination (UNCCT, 2024).
Use Of the Dark Web in Terrorism
The size and the usage of the dark web are growing day by day as it offers a variety of services to its users but at the same time, it is a threat to the real world due to the nature of services it offers. According to a recent study, illegal content like terrorist activities, illicit finances, drug and weapon trafficking, pornography, counterfeit currency, and others, occupy 57% of the dark web (Moore & Rid, 2016).
Terrorist organisations have been using the dark web secretly for about a decade. It was the U.S National Security Agency (NSA) that unraveled it by revealing the encrypted communications between the Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri and the head of its organisation in August 2013 (Rosner et al., 2013).
Other terrorist organisations such as ISIS started using the dark web in November 2015 following the attacks in Paris and the Operation Paris Campaign. In response to the attacks, hundreds of ISIS’s websites were taken down by the amorphous Hacker Collective Anonymous under the Operation Paris Campaign. Following this ISIS turned to the use of the dark web to spread news and propaganda to safeguard its data from hacktivists. ISIS’s media outlet, Al-Hayat Media Center, posted links and instructions on how to reach their new dark net site on a forum linked to ISIS. This site also included an archive of ISIS propaganda materials, including its documentary-style film, The Flames of War (Weimann, 2018).
Terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Ansar al-Sharia in Libya (ASL), Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), and Jaysh al-Islam in Syria also use the dark web (Awasthi, 2024). It can be ascertained that terrorists are using the dark web for multiple operations and activities such as spreading propaganda, ensuring secure and encrypted communication, fundraising, recruitment, operational coordination, dealing in arms and ammunition, and more (Awasthi, 2024).
Spreading Propaganda
Terrorist entities use the dark web to host propaganda materials such as videos, speeches, manifestos, and publications through which they aim to glorify their activities, change the ideology, and engrave fear in opponents. They spread their propaganda using tools like publicly accessible anonymous proxy servers, anonymizing services such as Tor, and cryptocurrencies for financial transactions. A study by Conway et al. highlights how extremist groups leverage the dark web to disseminate propaganda while avoiding surveillance and takedowns by authorities (Conway & Macdonald, 2021).
The Al-Hayat Media Center of ISIS has been using its media outlets to share links and instructions to access its dark website on ISIS-related forums and through its Telegram channel. This highlights how they have been adapting to new technology to stay hidden and spread their messages (Weimann, 2015).
Ensure secure and encrypted communication
The dark web provides secure channels for internal communication to terrorists who have been using the dark web for planning, organising, and executing terrorist operations as they perceive it to be the most secure means of communication. They also use secure encrypted communication applications such as Telegram as a means of communication. Groups such as ISIS, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and Hezbollah use Telegram for many reasons such as finding new members, encouraging violence, fundraising, and planning attacks (Awasthi, 2024).
The Turkish Dark Web for example uses its platform to circulate manuals on building explosives and weapons (Liu, 2015). It also trains its volunteers to use the dark web. Another example is ISIS which has been using lesser-known social media platforms such as Diaspora and VKontakte as a means of communication to enhance security (Sageman, 2008).
Fundraising
Terrorist organisations avoid the traditional financial system, which is easy to track and monitor, and use cryptocurrencies instead on the dark web for raising and transferring funds anonymously for their operations. Laderman and Porch highlighted in “The War on Terror and Cryptocurrency” how terrorist groups utilize cryptocurrency-enabled platforms on the dark web to finance propaganda production and distribution, recruitment, and operations.
ISIS has actively used the dark web and cryptocurrencies to fund its operations. A notable example is a web page titled “Fund the Islamic Struggle without Leaving a Trace”. By using this web page ISIS seeks donations in Bitcoin. The anonymity of the transactions has been ensured by using the application “dark wallet”(Dion-Schwarz et al., 2019)
Recruitment
Terrorist groups use the dark web for the recruitment and training of new members as well. They have been providing courses on explosives manufacturing and execution of terrorist attacks to worldwide followers on dark web platforms and it has been very difficult for counterterrorism agencies to identify and restrain these activities (R.Vacca, 2019).
Terrorist organisations like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram have been using the dark web for recruiting purposes. ISIS created and continues to maintain encrypted forums and websites that circulate ideological content, training materials, and interactive platforms for interested recruits (Weimann, G., 2016). According to the RAND Corporation study (2018), Al-Qaeda also uses the dark web to spread its message and recruit followers.
Countermeasures for Terrorism on the Dark Web
Using Technology to Fight Back
Technology is one of our strongest tools in the fight against terrorism. Advances like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) allow authorities to detect encrypted communications and identify violent content. For example, tools like sentiment analysis can track extremist ideas and help monitor dark web forums for illegal activities (Sonmez & Codal, 2022). Operations like DisrupTor, which successfully took down several dark web marketplaces, show how technology can disrupt terrorist operations. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has used blockchain analysis to track cryptocurrency transactions linked to terrorism, showing how technology can be used alongside legal measures (Ogunlana, 2018).
Updating the Law for the Digital Age
To stay ahead in the fight against dark web terrorism, laws need to be updated. Often it becomes difficult for the authorities to track and punish criminals as these platforms provide a lot of anonymity. In India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (2023) is a welcome step toward regulating cyberspace; more such laws are needed to target dark web activities directly and to ensure that there are no free legal grounds for such activities to breed. In countries like the United States, authorities use the process of ‘Link Analysis’ to track terrorist networks by mapping connections between individuals, which helps identify key players in these groups (Sonmez & Codal, 2022).
Global Collaborations and Partnerships
Terrorism is not a one- country problem, so tackling it requires global cooperation. Countries must share intelligence, align their cybersecurity policies, and work together on joint operations to take down terrorist networks. International agreements like the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime lay the groundwork for such cooperation. At the 2023 G20 Summit, India called for stronger global efforts to regulate cryptocurrencies and stop their use in terrorism (Ogunlana, 2018).
Preventing Radicalization by Educating the Public
One of the most effective ways to stop terrorism on the dark web is through public awareness. Terrorist organisations have been using encrypted platforms to spread their agendas and recruit vulnerable people. Authorities need to promote digital literacy so that people can recognize the dangers of online radicalization. In Kashmir, India’s efforts to increase digital literacy have helped mitigate the influence of extremist groups. Similarly, in the UK, school programs teach students how to spot and reject extremist content (Sonmez & Codal, 2022).
Stopping the Flow of Terrorist Money
Cryptocurrencies are a major tool for funding terrorism, so disrupting these financial networks is a critical part of counter-terrorism efforts. Authorities can use blockchain forensics to trace cryptocurrency transactions and uncover hidden financial networks. The Financial Action Task Force’s ‘Travel Rule’, which requires cryptocurrency exchanges to share transaction data, has already made it harder for criminals to hide their financial activities (Sonmez & Codal, 2022). The Enforcement Directorate, in India has successfully tracked down crypto wallets used for terror financing (Ogunlana, 2018).
Use of Quantum Technology
Upcoming technologies like quantum computing and deep learning have the potential to strike back at breeding grounds of terrorism on the dark web. Quantum computing, in particular, could help authorities break encryption and expose terrorist activities. India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is already working on improving cybersecurity through quantum key distribution, which will help crack encryption and protect communications ( Sonmez & Codal, 2022).
Conclusion
The dark web has enabled terrorist organizations to operate with a high degree of anonymity, making them more resilient to detection and intervention by authorities. From spreading propaganda and recruiting members to raising funds and coordinating attacks, the dark web serves as a vital tool for these groups to sustain and expand their activities. However, as technology evolves, so must the strategies to counter this threat. Through advanced technological tools, updated legal frameworks, global collaborations, and public education, significant progress can be made in disrupting terrorist activities on the dark web. Addressing this challenge requires a comprehensive and multi-layered approach, ensuring that the dark web’s potential for harm is minimized while preserving its legitimate uses for privacy and free expression.
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