Hacker with 30 years experience reveals scariest things he’s seen on dark web

Even digital hackers can have their stomachs turned, it seems.

Having spent a large portion of his life exploring the dark web, a veteran hacker with 30 years in the field once openly discussed the scariest things he's ever come across online.

For 99 per cent of internet users, we're exploring the vast material offered by the 'surface web', which is another way of saying it's all accessible via a search engine, like Google.

A semi-subterranean level exists though, known as the 'deep web', which is behind paywalls and passwords.

Then we have the grubby ground level of the 'dark web', where unindexed webpages requiring specific browsers lurk - perfect for encryption and anonymity.

But just when you think the worst of the worst was going to be mentioned by the hacker (interviewed by Vice five years ago), the thing that really sent a chill down his spine was cyber threats and criminals in trade.

He said there were people extorting money from hospitals (VICE)

In conversation with Vice, an anonymous hacker said he'd become a 'white hat' over the years who used his hacking skills for good and found weak spots in security software which he could warn people about so they could be safer.

One of the main things he looks out for are ransomware attacks, where criminals get malware onto somebody's computer system, encrypt their own data and then charge them money so they can access their information again.

The hacker explained that some of the scariest things he'd seen were 'black hat' hackers who weren't bound by any code of ethics, admitting that he used to be one himself.

He said some of these people were 'destructive attackers' who 'want to see the world burn', as he explained that among the things he'd encountered were ransomware attacks on hospitals which targeted patient data.

"I've watched hospitals get encrypted and people are left with a choice: do I pay to decrypt the data or do I risk lives?

The hacker said there were people on the dark web who 'want to watch the world burn' (Getty Stock Photo)

"Back when it started ransomware was charging hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands of dollars for individual targets.

"The bigger payouts that we're talking about now are easily into the tens of millions.

"This last, most recent attack, they offered $70 million dollars for the campaign key, which is the key that would have unlocked every single computer encrypted during that attack. So we're talking high-stakes games here."

Another top ethical hacker, Ryan Montgomery, explained that his experience of the dark web was 'horrible' sites that 'do horrible things'.

“There’s counterfeit money, there’s fake IDs, there all kinds of different websites that do horrible things," he explained, saying that sometimes he'd had to go onto the dark web to track down 'predators and paedophiles'.

Some of the websites on there also concern the 'murder for hire' business where people offered Bitcoin rewards to mark somebody for death, though in many cases the 'hitmen' are trying to scam people into paying them the cryptocurrency.