What actually is dark web? is Zainab case related to dark web? experts answer

A number of Information Technology (IT) experts shed light on what actually is dark web, the red rooms on dark web and if the Zainab murder-rape case is related to dark web in a special episode of ARY News’ “Sar-e-Aam” show.

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Cyber security expert Chaudhry Mansab Ali, Shahid Jamal Tabrezi, Cyber law expert- IT experts Irum Ahmed Khan Tanveer Landla attended the show and educated the viewers about dark web and if Zainab case has some correlation with the darkest part of the web.

What is Dark Web?

“It is basically a network which requires a special browser to access. A number of users pay in cryptocurrency for illegal services like murder, sexual abuse and even financial services,” said Chaudhry Mansab.

Mansab maintained that a number of users access dark web through TOR network (anonymity network) but illegal businesses who offer services for crime like murder, data theft, slave trade and child abuse sometimes sell a specially built browser to access their site.

About how data theft takes place, Mansab maintained that dark web specialists sometimes hack online shopping sites or financial services sites to steal the data of large number of users.

“Credit card data of Pakistani users is currently being sold for about 2,000 rupees each,” said Mansab.

Tanveer Landla, on his turn, explained that other than surface web (social media sites and search engines we use daily), there are two sections of web- deep web and dark web- with deep web being used by states for sensitive data and dark web being used by free thinkers and some criminals also.

“Dark web comprises of 96 percent of the total data on web, we only generate and access four percent of the data,” said Landla.

Red Rooms and Child Sexual Abuse on Dark Web

Answering a question about presence of child abuse videos and “red rooms”, Tanveer Landla said that red rooms are a part of dark web websites where viewer is shown video on his demand. It generally contains explicit harassment and torture of subject by some person of evil intention but one cannot search content on dark web like we do on Google for the content is not indexed and the urls (site addresses) are quite difficult for a normal user to remember.

“Users charge different amounts for different types of illegal activities; if you want to become a MASTER (the one who orders such videos or livestream on demand) you will have to pay a higher amount, if you are just a spectator, you will be charged a small amount,” said Landla.

Landla gave example of “Daisy’s Destruction” case, a horrific rape-murder case in which the perpetrator named Peter Scully tortured and murdered of children for his own sexual gratification. He would do anything requested by his MASTERS, even up to the killing of the child victim.

Operating a secret site on the Dark Web, he reportedly sold the videos for up to $10,000 per view.

Is Zainab case related to dark web?

After a senior journalist claimed on live television that Zainab case is related to dark web and the accused in the case is a part of such a network, civil society was eager to learn about how they can protect their children from such predators.

The journalist, however, could not produce any evidence to back his claim and so far investigators have not told the court hearing the case about finding accused Imran Arshad’s connection with any dark web syndicate.

Answering the question, IT expert Irum Ahmed Khan said that the doctor who conducted the rape-slay victim Zainab’s autopsy told media that there were marks of torture on her body similar to those victims whose videos are uploaded on dark web.

HERE IS THE VIDEO OF THE FULL SHOW

Zainab Case

Kidnapped on January 4 and found from a garbage heap on January 9, Zainab’s autopsy report suggested that the minor was sexually assaulted before being strangulated to death.
Justice For Zainab: 7-year-old’s rape, murder shakes Pakistan

The girl’s rape and murder sparked outrage among the residents of the city and whole of Pakistan with social activists and general public starting a trend #JusticeForZainab on social media.

Zainab’s parents were performing Umrah when the incident occurred, as they landed back in Pakistan, they demanded justice from Chief Justice of Pakistan and Chief of Army Staff (COAS).

On January 21, the Supreme Court gave three days’ time to a joint investigation team formed to probe the rape and murder of Zainab to track down the culprit.

The Joint Investigation Team formed to arrest the culprit nabbed a man named Imran Arshad on January 23 after the DNA proved that he was behind the rape and murder of Zainab and at least eight other girls from Kasur.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) here on Thursday reserved judgement in case on February 15 and will announce it on February 17,  Saturday (tomorrow).