Chapter 131: The dark side of the Internet

*Xin Lei*

"Who is Qi Qiang?" Shi Ruiling asked.

I typed. "He is Liao Huifang's friend. She had asked him to find about the FriendsChat app through which Duan Deming trapped Liao Chuntao."

"Yes. He studies in the Computer and technology department. He knows about this internet stuff, so I asked his help." Liao Huifang nodded.

Luo Zhiqiang slowly said, "We can take his help to tally what we have found until now."

Bro nodded. "Bring the laptop and connect the call to our system."

"Right."

We set the laptop, and Liao Huifang connected her phone to it for the video call.

In a few seconds, we saw a young boy looking back at us, wearing headphones. His hair was a little wavy, and he was quite fair. He wore square spectacles, and I could see a light stubble on his chin. There were bags under his eyes, which said that he might be working on the computer for too long.

"Qi Qiang!" Liao Huifang exclaimed. 

"Hey. I- Woah." He looked at all of us and looked puzzled. "When did you join together with so many people?"

"More like she forcefully tagged along." Bro coldly replied.

He looked blank for a moment. "Ah yeah...I get it now." Qi Qiang nodded as if he hit a realization.

"What do you get, Qi Qiang!" Liao Huifang furiously yelled.

"That you are annoying and clingy. You must have forced them to take you with them, right?"

I giggled and glanced at her. She bit her lip and I saw her face flushed probably in embarrassment.

"No need to dig into that stupid!"

He snorted.

Bai Li chuckled. "Such a lovely camaraderie."

"It is not."

"It is not."

They both said simultaneously. Liao Huifang then introduced him to all of us, and he nodded.

I typed. "Why did it take you so much time to respond?"

Qi Qiang looked at me, surprised. "Why are you talking through the phone?"

Ah…

But before I could say anything, Bro frostily stared at him and said, "Any problem if my sister cannot speak?"

Qi Qiang seemed afraid of bro. He seemed nervous and startled.

I sighed.

He coughed and looked awkward. "Ah, I didn't realize...I am sorry…" He apologized.

I smiled and shook my head.

"W-well back to the topic. I was busy digging information about the app. When Liao Huifang told me about it, I thought that it wouldn't be that of a big deal, but as I investigated further, I realized that things were way too complicated. I lost track of time, and I was completely cooped up in my room. This app FriendsChat is something really fancy but in a very dangerous way."

Bai Li asked, "How?"

Qi Qiang opened his mouth, but he shut it again as if thinking something.

"How much do you know about the internet?"

Bai Li was the first to say. "I am a noob."

I typed. "I don't know much in detail."

Liao Huifang sheepishly smiled. "I know only about art and drawings."

Luo Zhiqiang said nothing.

Shi Ruiling said, "I guess I have quite a knowledge about it."

Bro said, "Same."

He nodded. "So, for Liao Huifang, Sis Xin Lei and Bro Bai Li, let me explain simpler terms. Tell me. How do you find a house? If you want to visit somebody, what do you do if you don't know the way?"

"We ask for the address." Bai Li said. "Street or road name, the name of the apartment or the building, block number, city, etc."

"Right. The Internet works the same way. It is not something physical as a house. You cannot take a taxi and reach a destination like a physical home. Just like all places have a distinct address, the millions of websites on the Internet have an address too. A virtual address, which we also call it as a website URL or an IP address. For example, Google.com or Youtube.com. These URLs are called Uniform Resource Locator, and just like a physical address, they take us to the website it's intended to use for. So, when you type, www.google.com, in the address bar, it takes you to the Google homepage similar to reaching the house."

We nodded.

I typed. "What about FriendsChat? We typed it in the browser and app store and tried to find it everywhere, but we couldn't find it on the Internet."

"Of course, you wouldn't find it."

"Why not?" Bai Li asked.

"What if you cannot find the house?" Qi Qiang asked.

"Maybe the address is wrong."

"Or maybe the place is so well hidden that it isn't visible to you even if it's still there. What kind of places are they?"

Bai Li narrowed his eyes. "The places which one doesn't want them to be found. Like the black market."

"Exactly. They are present, but they cannot be found, and that is the same case with the Internet. To understand it, you need to know what the Internet is mainly composed of. 

There are three main parts by which the Internet is made of - The Surface web, the Deep Web, and the Dark Web."

I felt chills run through my spine as I heard it. It sounded something very sinister.

"Now, the thing is that most of the websites 'want' to be found. They work hard to increase their visibility on the Internet, like maybe a fashion website or e-commerce, and so on where they want maximum users to visit them and carry out transactions. And you find these sites using Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. So, it's basically a matter of search engines finding these sites and putting it before you."

I slowly nodded. 

"These websites belong to the surface web where they are open to all. You type it in the search engine, and you find them. This makes up around 10% of the Internet and includes everything and anything that can be found via search engines like Google. Things like Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipedia are all part of the surface web."

Bai Li murmured. "Right…"

"Now imagine an iceberg. Only a tip of it is visible above the water. That is the surface web. The rest of the huge mass of that iceberg is below the water. That is what 90% of what the Internet is made up of - Deep Web and Dark Web, which is hidden from everybody."

"What about the search engines?"

"That is when we come to Search Engine Optimization or SEO. That is what makes the website visible on your searches. Imagine a net. SEO can only catch those websites that have visibility like some sort of rock with pointed spikes. If you cast a net, it can easily hook through them and bring them out. But if a piece of rock is absolutely smooth with no rough edges and spikes at all, then will that net hook on to it?"

I shook my head.

"That's how the Dark and Deep Web is configured. They are smooth so that the net-like search engines, don't hook onto them at all. The search engines cannot index them so they are invisible to others. Deep Web isn't easily accessed without passwords. This can include things like your email account, pages you use to do online banking, company servers, and so on. They just have broken links hovering in the space.

While the Dark Web is like the black market, you mentioned earlier. The users there don't want themselves to be found. So they hide behind anonymous virtual walls. Everything from pornography, drugs, kidnapping and murder, weapons on sale, credit card scams can take place through Dark Web. They completely go undetected by SEO."

"I see. So FriendsChat belongs to the Dark Web."

"Yes. It is hosted there, and that's why you weren't able to find it."

I typed. "So how did the FriendsChat app reach Liao Chuntao, Chu Jie, and the other victims?"

Qi Qiang said, "Because if the users or whoever is operating it wants to, then they can send fake emails to their victims to visit the page. They can configure the settings so that their intended target can access their site. If that person didn't respond after a certain time limit passes, then they might delete that mail and all traces from the inbox of that victim. But I think they already choose targets such that they are sure that they fall for it. Plus, there are also people who hover in many online forums. Through them too, the culprits can know what they want and what they can offer them to fall for their trick."

We paused and thought about it.

"Like Sister Chuntao. She might have made accounts on dating websites or have inquired in forums on how to be more of an extrovert. The culprits might have noticed it and thought she could be an easy target if they played it right. Or Chu Jie. He might have ranted somewhere on how he is being bullied in the school or how his parents pressurize him for studies, so accordingly, they targeted his weak side."