Don't know how to get rid of white specs of whatever it is from my lens

I noticed recently that I keep getting these dark spots in my pictures, they appear only when that part of the camera has a light/white background. Its getting really annoying because it is quite obvious in some of the photos.

Camera is a 7+ years old Nikon D70 with a Nikkor 18-70mm lens (passed down from my uncle, kinda new at photography)

Think the dark spots are due to these little white specs of dust/stuff inside my lens, right under the (top)glass of the camera.

Is there anyway to get rid of them? How the heck did they end up in there anyway! And is couldit be fungus instead? I see some growing but I don't think it would affect the lens this way o.o

First I'd recommend a thorough professional cleaning. These folks have the tools and experience that
you don't.