A dark Internet or dark address refers to any or all unreachable network

Computer network

A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....

 hosts

Server (computing)

In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...

 on the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

.

The dark Internet should not be confused with either deep web

Deep web

The Deep Web refers to World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines....

 or darknet. Whereas deep web and darknet stand for hard-to-find websites and secretive networks that sometimes span across the Internet, the dark Internet is any portion of the Internet that can no longer be accessed through conventional means.

Causes

Failures within the allocation of Internet resources due to the Internet's chaotic tendencies of growth and decay are a leading cause of dark address formation. One form of dark address is military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

 sites on the archaic MILNET

MILNET

In computer networking, MILNET was the name given to the part of the ARPANET internetwork designated for unclassified United States Department of Defense traffic....

. These government networks are sometimes as old as the original Arpanet

ARPANET

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...

, and have simply not been incorporated into the Internet's changing architecture. It is also thought that hacker

Hacker (computer security)

In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...

s utilize malicious techniques to hijack private routers to either divert traffic or mask illegal activity. Through use of these private routers a dark Internet can form and be used to conduct all manner of misconduct on the Internet.

Security concerns

The dark Internet received attention in 2001 when many security organizations, including Arbor Networks

Arbor Networks

Arbor Networks is a software company founded in 2000 and based in Chemsford, Massachusetts, United States, which sells network security and network monitoring software, used – according to the company's claims – by over 70% of all Internet service providers...

, identified rogue dark networks as a potential farm for denial-of-service attack

Denial-of-service attack

A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...

s and other illegal activity.

Additional reading

• STS DarkNET
• Expedition to the lost net from BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
   (December 26, 2001)
• How terrorists use the Internet, ABC Australia interview with Professor Hsinchun Chen
  Hsinchun Chen
  Hsinchun Chen is the McClelland Professor of Management Information Systems at the University of Arizona and the Director and founder of the Artificial Intelligence Lab . He received a B.S. degree from National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, an MBA from SUNY Buffalo and an M.S. and Ph.D...
  
  .