Chapter 5-2
1116 Words
“Okay. I need to either create fake documents to show to Pretzelverse or hack into the electrical company for a recent bill,” Nigel said.
“Both options are risky, but we should be able to create some convincing forgeries of an electrical bill,” Jet said as she launched the MORP software. “There have been thousands of company breaches over the years, and Jake"s mother"s information is probably already on the Dark Web. Let"s run a search.”
Jet frowned. She only had three signal bars on her laptop. She needed at least four bars to create a secure, reliable, and untraceable connection.
“Is there a way you can boost the signal, Nigel?” Jet asked.
“Yeah, let me switch bands,” Nigel said.
He adjusted the input gain on the radio in order to get more power to help boost his signal. He had to be careful because Milo said that the police often scan the area near public places for unusually strong signals. Nigel didn"t think it was a problem tonight since it was a cold fall night, and he hadn"t seen a soul on the street since he met Jet.
After some time, Jet handed the laptop to Nigel. He looked closer at the directory listing on the screen. The structure looked similar to that of a directory listing on a personal computer, with one exception. The file names seemed to be random strings of alphanumeric characters, all with the same extension: “un.”
“What is this? It looks like random strings,” Nigel said.
“The file names are purposely vague,” Jet said. “Some of these files contain links to other sites; others contain information. It is hard to tell without opening the files.”
“Is it safe to open?”
“It depends. These files can contain almost anything.”
“Then how do we safely find the information without getting into trouble?”
“On the Dark Web, it"s very easy to get your computer infected if you click on any links or open the wrong file,” Jet explained. “But there are methods to anonymously open these files, and to request information.” Jet opened another window that contained a text document with several notes. “This is my cheat sheet. I had to write several algorithms to get it to work. I created a program that implemented each algorithm that scans and learns from each website. It"s sort of like a search engine but on a smaller scale. I call it SpiderJet.”
Jet chuckled as she said the name of her pet project aloud.
“SpiderJet is based on recursion theory, which is like peeling the layers of an onion. You see how each piece is put together as you unravel it,” Jet said excitedly.
Jet searched her SpiderJet log for information about counterfeiters. She saw hundreds of hits in her saved index.
“Let"s try one of these!” Jet said as she copied a cryptic link to her Scratchpad program, which allowed her to verify the link before going to it in the browser.
“I started using Scratchpad because I accidentally made a typo and got a very disgusting picture back once,” Jet said.
Jet trembled slightly. It could have been the cooling weather, but Nigel didn"t think so.
After verification, Jet was on the intended Dark Web site. It looked like the most basic web page ever. It contained only a few icons with some text below each one. The site"s name caught Nigel"s eye.
“Who names their website Ye Olde Info Shoppe?” Nigel asked.
“You see all sorts of site names here. Some have really rude names, so try not to get offended if you see any.”
The first image displayed a picture of a driver"s license with a caption which read, “Best Quality Licenses, any state for 0.516 DB.” The second picture was a passport. What caught his eye was a picture of an envelope. The caption read, “Address Verification, any address in the US, 0.751DB.”
“There.” Nigel pointed to the envelope picture. Jet hovered over the picture with her cursor for a moment. A small window appeared with the word “safe.” She clicked on the link, and a single page of links appeared. Nigel scanned the list for a moment before instructing her to click on a link that read, “Purchase Address Verification Service.”
.What appeared next was a generic-looking form that asked for several pieces of information, including a photo.
“Be careful here, Nigel,” Jet cautioned. “You don"t want to provide any personal information here, or anywhere else on the Dark Web, for that matter. You don"t know who is requesting it, or if this site will provide you with what you want. We have to verify the merchant first.”
“How do we do that?”
Jet pulled up another MORP browser window that looked like a discussion forum. “This site is called Dark Web Cred, and it allows users to post reviews on merchants and transactions.”
After scanning these sites for the next twenty minutes or so, she finally came across some reviews for the site. Overall, the site had a score of 4.6. Not bad, but Jet had seen several other sites with higher ratings. She decided it was safe to use the site, but instead of using the form, she clicked on a nearly invisible link that read, “Contact site administrator.” The link was pale yellow on the white background—very easy to miss!
Nigel was beginning to realize that attention to detail was vital when dealing with the Dark Web.
A new window appeared in the foreground with a textbox, reply address, and a send button. Jet typed, “Interested in product, need escrow service, provide escrow wallet address,” and provided a return address of, “fountain_spade.leaf.un,” then clicked send.
.“It’s done. When I get a reply back with a suitable DB wallet address, we can purchase the service,” Jet said.
“What is DB?”
“Oh, I forgot to mention it. It stands for Digibit, a digital currency. Almost everything on the Dark Web accepts Digibit.”
Jet glanced at her watch; it was nearly ten. “I’ve got to go, Nigel. Can we pick this up tomorrow?”
“Sure thing. Thanks again for all the help tonight.” He smiled at her as she left, and his smile lasted for much longer than she was in his sight.
- Writer
