The Invisible Web

StumbleUpon has an article by Marc Goodman, adapted his book Future Crimes, which originally appeared in the April 2015 issue of Popular Science, under the title The Dark Web Revealed, about the Web we can't see:

You thought you knew the Internet. But sites such as Facebook, Amazon, and Instagram are just the surface. There’s a whole other world out there: the Deep Web.
It’s a place where online information is password protected, trapped behind paywalls, or requires special software to access, and it’s massive. By some estimates, it is five hundred times larger than the surface Web that most people search every day. Yet it’s almost completely out of sight. According to a study published in Nature, Google indexes no more than siteen percent of the surface Web and misses all of the Deep Web. Any given search turns up just 0.03 percent of the information that exists online (one in three thousand pages). It’s like fishing in the top two feet of the ocean; you miss the virtual Mariana Trench below.
Much of the Deep Web’s unindexed material lies in mundane data­bases such as LexisNexis or the rolls of the Patent Office. But like a Russian matryoshka doll, the Deep Web contains a further hidden world, a smaller but significant community where malicious actors unite in common purpose for ill. Welcome to the Dark Web, sometimes called the Darknet, a vast digital underground where hackers, gangsters, terrorists, and pedophiles come to ply their trade. What follows is but a cursory sampling of the goods and services available from within the darkest recesses of the Internet. 

Things you can buy1. DrugsIndividual or dealer-level quantities of illicit and prescription drugs of every type are available in the digital underground. The Silk Road, the now-shuttered drug superstore, did two hundred million dollars in 28 months.
2. Counterfeit CurrencyFake money varies widely in quality and cost, but euros, pounds, and yen are all available. Six hundred dollars gets you twenty-five hundred dollars in counterfeit US notes, promised to pass the typical pen and ultraviolet-light tests.
3. Forged PapersPassports, driver’s licenses, citizenship papers, fake IDs, college diplomas, immigration documents, and even diplomatic ID cards are available on illicit marketplaces such as Onion Identity Services. A US driver’s license costs approximately two hundred dollars, while passports from the US or UK sell for a few thousand bucks.
4. Firearms, Ammunition, and ExplosivesWeapons such as handguns and C4 explosives are procurable on the Dark Web. Vendors ship their products in specially shielded packages to avoid x-ray detection, or send weapons components hidden in toys, musical instruments, or electronics.
5. HitmenService providers —including a firm named for the H.P. Lovecraft monster C’thulhu—advertise “permanent solutions to common problems”. For everything from private grudges to political assassinations, these hired guns accept bitcoin as payment and provide photographic proof of the deed.
6. Human OrgansIn the darker corners of the Dark Web, a vibrant and gruesome black market for live organs thrives. Kidneys may fetch two hundred thousand dollars, hearts and livers just over a hundred thousand, and a pair of eyeballs fifteen hundred dollars.

Things that make Internet crime work:
1. CryptocurrencyDigital cash, such as bitcoin and darkcoin, and the payment system Liberty Reserve provide a convenient system for users to spend money online while keeping their real-world identities hidden.
2. Bulletproof Web-hosting ServicesSome Web hosts, in places such as Russia or the Ukraine, welcome all content, make no attempts to learn their customers’ true identities, accept anonymous payments in bitcoin, and routinely ignore subpoena requests from law enforcement.
3. Cloud ComputingBy hosting their criminal malware with reputable firms, hackers are much less likely to see their traffic blocked by security systems. A recent study suggested that sixteen percent of the world’s malware and cyberattack distribution channels originated in the Amazon Cloud.
4. CrimewareLess skilled criminals can buy all the tools they need to identify system vulnerabilities, commit identity theft, compromise servers, and steal data. It was a hacker with just such a tool kit who invaded Target’s point-of-sale system in 2013.
5. Hackers for hireOrganized cybercrime syndicates outsource hackers-for-hire. China's Hidden Lynx group boasts up to a hundred professional cyber-thieves, some of whom are known to have penetrated systems at Google, Adobe, and Lockheed Martin.
6. Multilingual crime call centersEmployees will play any duplicitous role you would like, such as providing job and educational references, initiating wire transfers, and unblocking hacked accounts. Calls cost around ten dollars. 

How to access the Dark Web’s wares:
Anonymizing Browser
Tor— short for The Onion Router— is one of several software programs that provide a gateway to the Dark Web. Tor reroutes signals across six thousand servers to hide a page request’s origin, making clicks on illicit material nearly impossible for law enforcement to trace. It uses secret pages with .onion suffixes— rather than .com— which are only accessible with a Tor browser.
Secret search enginesIn mid-2014, a hacker created Grams, the Dark Web’s first distributed search engine. Grams allows would-be criminals to search for drugs, guns, and stolen bank accounts across multiple hidden sites. It even includes an I’m Feeling Lucky button and targeted ads where drug dealers compete for clicks.
Criminal WikisCarefully organized wikis list hidden sites by category, such as Hacks, Markets, Viruses, and Drugs. Descriptions of each link help curious newcomers find their desired illicit items.
Hidden chatroomsJust as in the real world, online criminals looking to obtain the most felonious material must be vouched for before they can transact. A network of invitation-only chatrooms and forums, hidden behind unlisted alphanumeric Web addresses, provides access to the most criminal of circles.

Rico says it's all fascinating, but he hasn't the patience to fuck with this stuff...