In the Basement Vaults of the Internet

The Dark Web has a bad reputation—rightly so, but also wrongly. It represents one of three layers of the internet and originally stems from the halls of the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington D.C. Almost as an unintended side effect and contrary to the intentions of its creators, it developed into a universally used “cellar vault” for criminals of various kinds. In public perception, it is almost exclusively associated with them. However, the fact that it has also become a forum for free expression for dissidents, politically persecuted individuals, and whistleblowers is overlooked. The technology developed at the NRL called “Onion Routing” offers special protection against tracing, combined with significantly better anonymity than can be achieved on the “normal” internet. This makes the Dark Web so attractive to very heterogeneous user groups and so difficult for law enforcement. Anyone who ventures there as an “ordinary citizen” should know exactly what they are doing due to the various risks.