As modest as they appeared, these three men have become known as the people who in that darkened conference room in 2004 unleashed the Tor anonymity network, one of the most controversial phenomena in the history of the internet.

An acronym for The Onion Router, Tor bounces data and messages through as many as 5,000 other computers, known as nodes or relays, adding layers of encryption to the data like skins on an onion, until it is virtually impossible to discern the original users location and identity.

And although it has positive applications, especially in repressive regimes such as Iran and China, where pro-democracy activists use it to publicise human rights abuses and foment dissent, it is also used by many thousands of people to trade guns, drugs, stolen goods and child pornography. It has been implicated in hundreds of cases of fraud, identity theft and paedophilia. Remarkably, though, the US Navy continues to provide most of its funding.

When we started working on Tor, we didnt sit back and think too much about the implications of privacy, security and anonymity, says Sylverson, on the phone from the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. The reason for our research was to allow US government employees to go to public websites to gather information, without anybody knowing that there was somebody from the Navy looking for this stuff.

To guarantee anonymity, Tor had to have mass appeal and so the software was designed to be open-source, meaning that the source code could be distributed and developed by anybody. It had to be picked up by the public and used. This was fundamental, says Sylverson. If we created an anonymous network that was only being used by the Navy, then it would be obvious that anything popping out or going in was going to and from the Navy.

Weapons for sale on the Tor-accessed site Armory (Flickr)

Every additional ordinary user, he says, enhances the security and protection that the network is designed to offer to Navy employees, and is, in a way, their payment.

Fast-forward to 2014, and that attitude seems at best naive, at worst willfully negligent. Sites that are blocked by most internet service providers, including those peddling hardcore child pornography, are accessible using Tor and available to browse following some simple steps well within the grasp of most computer-users.

Each page can take up to 30 seconds to load, but that aside, when I log on to the network on a Monday afternoon after downloading the Tor browser, I find it easy to access a wealth of illegal goods and services, ranging from the appalling to the ridiculous.

Gun Grave, for instance, offers a selection of weapons including a mint condition M4 semi-automatic rifle that can be shipped worldwide. Chances are if you are looking for it we can find it, the vendor writes. Evidently, there is a history here. Further down the listing, he elaborates: "We have had 2 orders for 3 items seized recently and rather then work with us according to our partial refund policy the buyers decided to leave negative feedback and try to extort us with threats of negative forum comments.... WE WILL NOT BE EXTORTED!!!!!! Thank you."

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Guns, drugs and freedom: the great dark net debate