A layer: a parasitic website that is underpinned entirely by another, that allows functionality that is not in the host.
For predators that otherwise may be easily targeted (such as say drug dealers on Craigslist), a layer would allow an avenue of approach that the host would be unaware of or unable to cope with. This strategy is more likely to take hold in situations where the underlying site is an open platform.
Consider a layer, call it CraigsBlackList, that essentially modifies the way you look at and access Craigslist (among the flattest, most robust platforms on the internet).
You open up CBL, and it looks exactly like CL. Once you login however, (a login you received from a friend – fellow predator – via an invite only, reputation based system normal, seemingly benign ads for legitimate goods – vehicles, fruit, apartments – transform into the thriving black market ecosystem. (System-handled codewords reveal drug sales, prostitution rings, weapons trades and the like.)
Meanwhile, users of Craigslist see the CBL ads as well, but to them, the ads are benign legitimate market items. To CL administrators, the illicit ads are impossible to distinguish from legitimate without penetrating the predator social network. (Unlikely given gang/cartel/mafia enforcer involvement.)
Essentially, CL was just parasitically absorbed by CBL.
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Comments ( 6 )
[...] Vaidya has a very interesting post on deceptive illicit markets. He calls it a “layer: a parasitic website that is underpinned entirely by another, that [...]
Deception Links #3 « M?tis added these pithy words on Apr 14 09 at 11:54 pm[...] I wrote about a year ago is a reality in Cuba. An early iteration of a CraigsList for illicit goods. Subscribe to comments [...]
Shlok Vaidya’s Thinking » Cuba’s CraigsBlackList added these pithy words on Jan 04 10 at 9:09 amSee: http://www.ftrain.com/google_takes_all.html
for some semantic web riffing on that general theme:“The cultural future of the Semantic Web is a tricky one. Privacy is a huge concern, but too much privacy is unnerving. Remember those taxonomies? Well, a group of people out of the Cayman Islands came up with a “ghost taxonomy” – a thesaurus that seemed to be a listing of interconnected yacht parts for a specific brand of yacht, but in truth the yacht-building company never existed except on paper – it was a front for a money-laundering organization with ties to arms and drug smuggling. When someone said “rigging” they meant high powered automatic rifles. Sailcloth was cocaine. And an engine was weapons-grade plutonium.”
gawp added these pithy words on
Mar 31 09 at
8:56 pm
It’s an interesting idea, basically steganography. You are using craigslist (or whatever service) for data storage delivery. I’d say get rid of the middle man. I don’t see the advantage of using an open/public intermediary over setting up a private encrypted network like freenet etc. Ultimately this is security through obscurity…
Areth Foster-Webster added these pithy words on
Apr 01 09 at
11:40 am
Areth –
The value is in the fact that it is open/public. Those ecosystems have much more diversity, resiliency, etc.
Darknets have to build up that level of robustness. This allows you to take advantage of what’s already out there.
Shlok added these pithy words on
Apr 01 09 at
12:35 pm
