Imagine a case where you are a cardiologist, and somebody desires to kill your patients who use cardiac defibrillator. It has also been shown that almost any electronic device, from a ventilator to an insulin pump, can be hacked. At that time, an individual’s full medical records, including family history, were traded for around $20 to $50 on the dark web. In 2016, hackers stole medical records of nearly 16 million Americans from healthcare organizations. 4Īlmost all online data/devices are susceptible to online attacks. It has been suggested that medical personnel participate in/infiltrate such forums to provide the appropriate information in an anonymous fashion. Notably, there are many harm reduction forums found on the dark web, in which consumers share such information as to how to take a drug safely (i.e., optimal dosage, share personal experience of a drug, and even advise on how to quit a drug), basically in a non-judgmental “Narcotics Anonymous” forum. Also, due to anonymity, the risk of direct physical violence or harassment by drug-dealing gangs has diminished. As a result, the risk of contamination, dilution with other products, or overdose has become less than street transactions. Crypto markets are equipped with potency ratings for drugs and a robust feedback system, so the purity of drugs and the accountability of vendors are surprisingly high. Interestingly, consumers seem to be satisfied with purchases on the dark web. Nowadays, there are crypto markets where a person can conveniently purchase anything illicit from benzodiazepines to cocaine, and that material can be delivered to almost any place worldwide via regular mail. The FBI announced that this website had a 1.2 billion-dollar turnover, with 80 million dollars in commission for administrators within 2 years of its establishment. With the expansion of Internet and social media, online drug trading has become more prevalent over time, the most memorable network being “Silk Road,” which was seized by the FBI in 2013. The trade of illicit drugs via the Internet dates back to a marijuana exchange between Stanford students and their counterparts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1971 or 1972 utilizing ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) accounts at their labs. Thus, it is the responsibility of all physicians who deal with transplant candidates to warn them of social media and dark web advertisements of organs, and their possible hazards. Such transplants are associated with a high potential risk to both donors and recipients, since it demands a high level of patient care for both preoperative and postoperative management. On darknet, the price of a transplantable organ doubled from 2008 to 2015 and now is around $40,000. With the spread of Internet technology from 2005 to 2013, the pattern of organ trafficking has changed from local to global. It is estimated that the crypto market covers 5 to 10% of kidney transplant market. 2 Not surprisingly, wealthy candidates will turn to alternative options. Every year, around 10% of those on the wait list die or become too sick to be transplanted. In 2018, the number of kidney transplantations in the USA was around 21,000 however, the number of transplant candidates in waiting list was around 100,000. Transplantation is considered the best mode of treatment for patients with end-stage kidney disease. In recent years, transplantation tourism and modern slavery have become of great concern, globally. 1 Below, we will briefly present some of the activities that occur in the dark web. To make its magnitude clearer, in 2017, it was estimated that only 4% of the web was available on the surface web, and the remaining 96%, with 7.9 zettabytes, belonged to the dark web. These two features make the dark web, a perfect place for illicit transactions, such as trade of private medical information, illicit drugs, and weapons (biological, nuclear, chemical, etc.), as well as organ trafficking and many other illegal activities. Data and persons are anonymous in the dark web, where commerce takes place by cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, and cannot be traced easily by the governments. The third layer is the “dark web” or “the dark side of deep web” that is only accessible by unique browsers, such as Tor (“The Onion Router”). These two layers can be reached via regular Internet browsers. The interconnected network (Internet) can be imagined as an iceberg that has three layers: (1) the “surface web” that can be reached via conventional search engines like Google (2) the “deep web” that is made of entities such as transactional databases and password-protected email accounts, which are supported by logins and are not indexed in search engines.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |