Darknet

(1) The collection of software and servers used to distribute music, videos and other copyrighted material illegally. Before the Internet became popular, darknets were small and distribution was by floppy disk or tape. Today, the Internet is the primary distribution medium, which enables copies of copyrighted material to be sent to millions of people around the world within days. At the end of 2004, it was estimated that more than a half million pirated movies were being transferred over the darknet every day. For an interesting overview of the subject, read "The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution" at http://crypto.stanford.edu/DRM2002/darknet5.doc.

(2) A server that collects packets from an attacker. It provides no services other than to receive packets for analysis. Any packets sent to the darknet are most likely malware, because its IP address is not published. The server must have been scanned and detected as vulnerable to attack. See honeypot and topsite.

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A darknet can be:

• Darknet (file sharing) - a closed private network of computers used for file sharing
• An alternate term for a network telescope, used to monitor internet traffic

Not to be confused with:

• Dark internet - machines unreachable by other computers on the internet
• Deep Web - website content not indexed by search engines
• Dark fiber - unused optical fiber communications infrastructure

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