Advice on the Internet brings with it new problems. Online counselling is entering the professionalisation phase in terms of both the technical and infrastructural framework conditions as well as the professional qualifications of online consultants. The apparent anonymity of the Internet seduces people into revealing things they would otherwise never mention in public. The following can be … [Read more...]
Online Counselling: Closeness Through Distance
The term online counselling refers to computer-aided counselling that is mediated via the Internet and takes place interactively. The collective term online counselling encompasses a wide variety of interaction processes. Specific forms of communication are: e-mail advice, chat advice, advice in forums. In terms of content, online counselling differs in terms of target group orientation, … [Read more...]
Unmasking Myths About Russian Mail Order Brides
The mail-order bride industry has grown exponentially over the last two decades, with men from Western countries seeking foreign brides from poorer nations to become their wives. While in the 1990s it was primarily women from Southeast Asia advertised as potential brides, in recent years women from Eastern Europe, and most prominently attractive young Russian and Ukrainian women, have become the … [Read more...]
What is Pharming (Internet)?
Pharming is a scam method spread through the Internet. It is based on manipulating the DNS queries of web browsers (for example, through DNS spoofing) in order to redirect the user to fake websites. It is an evolution of classic phishing. Pharming has established itself as an umbrella term for various types of DNS attacks. One method to do this is to manipulate the host file locally. With the … [Read more...]
What is Silk Road (Virtual Black Market)?
Silk Road was a virtual black market operated as a hidden service on the Tor network. In particular, illegal drugs and various digital goods were traded there, with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin being used as the only means of payment. After the original platform was seized after two and a half years of activity and the alleged operator was arrested, it reopened just a month later under Silk Road … [Read more...]
Measures to Protect Against DNS Spoofing
Measures to protect against DNS spoofing are either aimed at including more random information in the DNS message that the attacker has to guess or protecting the message with cryptographic techniques. Since the Kaminsky attack became known, all common name servers have been using source port randomization. In addition to the transaction number, the source port of a DNS request in the UDP header … [Read more...]
What is End-to-end Encryption
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is the encryption of transmitted data across all transmission stations. Only the communication partners (the respective endpoints of the communication) can decrypt the message. When using symmetric encryption, the key to ensure end-to-end encryption must only be known to the end communication partners. When using asymmetric encryption, it must be ensured that the … [Read more...]
Basics of BitTorrent
BitTorrent is a collaborative file-sharing protocol that is particularly suitable for the rapid distribution of large amounts of data and was designed and first published in 2001. In contrast to other file-sharing techniques, BitTorrent does not rely on an overarching file-sharing network, but builds a decentralized distribution network for each file. Technically, the protocol is assigned to … [Read more...]
What Are the Types of Anonymizer (Anonymity on the Internet)
An anonymizer is a system that helps users maintain their anonymity on the Internet, especially on the World Wide Web. They are intended to help maintain data protection and data security when surfing. In their function, they are similar to remailers, which are used to anonymize emails. Simple Anonymizers An anonymizer is used as a so-called proxy or a virtual private network … [Read more...]
What Are Digital Goods?
In economics, digital goods are all digitized economic objects that serve to satisfy the needs of economic agents. In economics, goods are divided into tangible goods, intangible goods (services) and digital goods with regard to their physical nature. Digital goods are a modern type of goods that have only emerged through digitalization and contain digital data. According to the degree of … [Read more...]
How Darknet Market Works
A darknet market is a virtual marketplace that operates away from the open internet in the darknet. Basically, since such platforms are mostly illegal black markets, they are run as onion services on the Tor or I2P network. Only cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Monero are used as a means of payment. Darknet markets became known to a wide audience primarily through the rise and fall of Silk … [Read more...]