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Where are the net's dark corners?
33RPM AT DUTCH UNCLE
Where are the net’s dark corners? There are plenty of places online that you would do well to steer clear of. A brief visit to some unsavoury websites, for instance, could leave your computer infected with worms or viruses. Then there are the “black holes” to worry about. If your emails mysteriously disappear, or your favourite website is suddenly unobtainable, you might have run into one. Though nowhere near as destructive as their cosmological cousins, information black holes can create all kinds of problems for surfers. Essentially they are points on the network at which data packets simply disappear due to broken connections, say, or misconfigured routers – devices that maintain lists of addresses and which help direct internet traffic. A team including computer scientist Ethan Katz-Bassett at the University of Washington
in Seattle has detected almost 1.5 million black holes since it began looking in 2007. The majority persist for over 2 hours, he says. Unfortunately it is tough to predict where they will appear next, so it’s hard for the average surfer to avoid them. Far easier to avoid are a kind of online chatroom called Internet Relay Chat channels. Though the majority are legitimate, a few IRC channels have a very dark reputation, and are run as open markets for stolen goods. One 2007 survey found $37 million worth of illegal stuff in IRC channels, including 80,000 credit card numbers and bank account details. And if that is not bad enough, some of these chatrooms are also used by hackers to send commands to their networks of malicious software bots, or botnets. When a PC is infected by a virus or malicious software it may be
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hijacked and used as part of a botnet to launch spam or cyber-attacks elsewhere. Then there are significant pockets of cyberspace – some 5 per cent of all internet addresses – that are not fully connected to the rest of the net. Dubbed the “dark internet”, they are often the result of faulty routers or networks with strict security policies that block traffic. Amongst these dark regions are blocks of seemingly unused internet addresses that may suddenly and briefly flare into activity. Although this behaviour might have an innocent explanation, it can also hint at dubious activities. A three-year study by online security consultants Arbor Networks revealed that dark internet addresses can be a source of cyber-attacks and junk email. The study suggests that hackers or spammers hijack routers and use them to create false addresses which are left dormant until the hackers bring them to life to facilitate their nefarious ends. These dark addresses seem to be multiplying in proportion to the growth of the net, says Arbor Networks’ Craig Labovitz. Ben Crystall
billion internet users in 2008 SOURCE: INTERNETWORLDSTATS.COM
2 May 2009 | NewScientist | 33
Where are the net’s dark corners? There are plenty of places online that you would do well to steer clear of. A brief visit to some unsavoury websites, for instance, could leave your computer infected with worms or viruses. Then there are the “black holes” to worry about. If your emails mysteriously disappear, or your favourite website is suddenly unobtainable, you might have run into one. Though nowhere near as destructive as their cosmological cousins, information black holes can create all kinds of problems for surfers. Essentially they are points on the network at which data packets simply disappear due to broken connections, say, or misconfigured routers – devices that maintain lists of addresses and which help direct internet traffic. A team including computer scientist Ethan Katz-Bassett at the University of Washington
in Seattle has detected almost 1.5 million black holes since it began looking in 2007. The majority persist for over 2 hours, he says. Unfortunately it is tough to predict where they will appear next, so it’s hard for the average surfer to avoid them. Far easier to avoid are a kind of online chatroom called Internet Relay Chat channels. Though the majority are legitimate, a few IRC channels have a very dark reputation, and are run as open markets for stolen goods. One 2007 survey found $37 million worth of illegal stuff in IRC channels, including 80,000 credit card numbers and bank account details. And if that is not bad enough, some of these chatrooms are also used by hackers to send commands to their networks of malicious software bots, or botnets. When a PC is infected by a virus or malicious software it may be
1.58
hijacked and used as part of a botnet to launch spam or cyber-attacks elsewhere. Then there are significant pockets of cyberspace – some 5 per cent of all internet addresses – that are not fully connected to the rest of the net. Dubbed the “dark internet”, they are often the result of faulty routers or networks with strict security policies that block traffic. Amongst these dark regions are blocks of seemingly unused internet addresses that may suddenly and briefly flare into activity. Although this behaviour might have an innocent explanation, it can also hint at dubious activities. A three-year study by online security consultants Arbor Networks revealed that dark internet addresses can be a source of cyber-attacks and junk email. The study suggests that hackers or spammers hijack routers and use them to create false addresses which are left dormant until the hackers bring them to life to facilitate their nefarious ends. These dark addresses seem to be multiplying in proportion to the growth of the net, says Arbor Networks’ Craig Labovitz. Ben Crystall
billion internet users in 2008 SOURCE: INTERNETWORLDSTATS.COM
2 May 2009 | NewScientist | 33