Alan Meckler, the man behind the 1990s’ Internet World and Inside Bitcoins over the past few years, is launching a new conference in collaboration with TMC: Inside Dark Web. The new dark web conference will take place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City on May 12th, 2016.
Internet World, as a part of MecklerMedia, was the first major conference covering the Internet, and Meckler sees many parallels between the early days of the Internet and these early days of the dark web. As the dark web continues to grow, new opportunities and risks are created for businesses around the world. The Inside Dark Web conference will bring together cybersecurity experts, government officials, entrepreneurs and others to discuss the positive and negative aspects of anonymizing networks such as Tor.
Topics that will be covered at the upcoming conference include: Tor, onion routing, illegal use cases, legal use cases and the possible business applications of the dark web.
An Industry Is Growing Around the Dark Web
Although the general public usually thinks about the dark web only in terms of illicit trade and terrorism financing, the reality is that there are a number of business opportunities (both legal and illegal) created by this technology. Darknet marketplaces, such as Silk Road, will be discussed at this event, but there will also be a focus on the use of anonymizing networks in traditional business settings. Additionally, business leaders can learn how to protect themselves against new threats created by anonymous communication networks.
Who Will Be Speaking?
Although Inside Dark Web is a one-day event, a long list of speakers will be featured. One of the developers of onion routing at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Paul Syverson, will be speaking on the origins of Tor, which is the most popular anonymizing network in existence. The Tor Project still receives the vast majority of its funding from the U.S. government, although there’s been a push to find new funding mechanisms for the project.
Corey Wells (aka flanvel) is an independent Internet and security researcher who will be discussing a wide range of topics related to Tor hidden services, with a focus on darknet markets and community forums. Wells gained some fame late last year for uncovering an ad for hundreds of thousands of Comcast account credentials for sale on the dark web. Chainalysis CRO Jonathan Levin will also be giving a talk titled “Strings of Gold in the Dark Web ‒ Underground Economy.”
New Jersey State Assemblyman Gordon Johnson will be on hand to discuss how local governments can respond to possible issues associated with the dark web.
A full list of speakers can be found on the conference’s website.
Disclosure: The writer of this article was previously the editor-in-chief at Inside Bitcoins, which is a conference created by MecklerMedia.