A Chronological Dive Into the Deep Web's History

The Deep Web is a portion of the Internet that can’t be found via standard search engines. While the majority of websites on the Deep Web are legitimate, some use this area as a marketplace for illegal goods and services. This includes illicit drugs, weapons, stolen data and RaaS (Risk as a Service) — software that can deliver malware to unsuspecting users. The Dark Web is also used by activists, whistleblowers and people living under totalitarian regimes to share their thoughts and resistance.

In this article, we will take a chronological dive into the Deep Web’s history and discuss how it evolved from a hidden part of the Internet to a popular marketplace for illicit content. We will also explore how the popularity of this area has spurred law enforcement agencies to increase efforts to track down and prosecute those who commit crimes on the Deep Web.

The first steps towards the Internet’s eventual becoming a popular marketplace for illicit content began in 1969 when the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US Department of Defense devised a computer communications network called ARPANET. The network, primarily used by universities to communicate with each other, was an early attempt at a distributed system that could allow computers from different networks to exchange information.

As the popularity of the Internet grew, it became clear that there needed to be a way for users to control who had access to their information. This led to the creation of "data havens," which allowed people to move their sensitive data to a location with lax laws that prevented it from being accessible by governments in other countries where those data might be considered illegal.

The idea of data havens fueled the development of cryptography, which allows individuals to send confidential messages through the Internet without fear of interception by their governments. It also spawned the concept of digital currencies, which enable individuals to buy and sell items online with a level of anonymity that is difficult to obtain otherwise.

While many forms of digital currencies have been developed over the years, it wasn’t until 2009 that one known as Bitcoin took off. Created by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin was a revolutionary technology because it enabled transactions to be conducted completely anonymously and it created a system of record keeping that prevents individuals from copying money.

By combining the capabilities of Tor, Freenet and Bitcoin, the first ever dark market – the infamous Silk Road - was born. The website was an online marketplace that sold illegal drugs and other contraband, and at its peak was attracting close to a million visitors. While the FBI ultimately shut down the site in a massive sting operation, it highlights how powerful and popular this dark part of the Internet was at that time.

Since then, the number of sites hosted on the deep web has grown significantly, and new technologies have been introduced to give users even more ways to hide their online identities. However, recent tumbling valuations and ongoing security concerns have many predicting that the future of the deep web is not bright.