You may have heard about this mysterious place on the Internet called the ‘Deep Web’. Interest in the deep web and dark web has been on the rise following a few high profile data leaks, a growing interest in online privacy, references in mainstream media, or the widely publicized FBI investigation into online marketplace Silk Roadthat exposed the extent of online drug trafficking.
Note:This feature was originally published on 05/20/2016. We have revised it and bumped it as part of our #ThrowbackThursday initiative.
In simple terms, the Surface Web is anything that a search engine can find by crawling links and identifying content online, while the Deep Web is anything that a search engine can’t find. The Dark Web on the other hand merely represents a smaller portion of the deep web that has been intentionally hiddenand is inaccessible through standard web browsers.
The Tornetwork is the most commonly known place where dark web content resides. This anonymous network consists of thousands of servers located all over the world run by volunteers and online privacy advocates. Its name is an acronym for ‘The Onion Router’ in reference to its namesake routing technique, which creates a path through randomly assigned Tor servers, or nodes, before reaching whatever website you are visiting. During this process data packets are wrapped in successive layers of packets that get "peeled off" at each node until reaching the destination.
While finding content on the dark web can take time and plenty of patience, technically, accessing the Tor network isn't that complicated at all. You simply need to downloadand install the browser available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It is no different from installing any other piece of software and it's very simple to use as it's just a modified version of Firefox.
For those that want to take extra precaution there's also Tails OS, a bootable operating system that's already preconfigured to maximize privacy and that you can run from a USB stick or a virtual machine. Tails has an installation wizard that guides you step-by-step through the process of setting up the software so that shouldn't pose much of a challenge either.
Tails received a lot of press when it was disclosed that Edward Snowdenwas using it to avoid NSA snooping. Its sole purpose is preserving your privacy and anonymity online by relying on the Tor network and other tools to keep your activity secret.
Finding content inside the deep or dark web is somewhat reminiscent of the early days of the world wide web before search engines like Altavista and Google made finding content way easier. You can traverse link directories like OnionDirand The Hidden Wikiwhich list sites under a range of categories covering various services and interests -- blogs, hosting, forums, warez, hacking, to name a few.
There are also a few search engines like DuckDuckGoand you can find some guidance or related information on reddit, too. There will be a lot of sites that have been taken down or are offline so finding working, up-to-date links and directories can take some time.
Even though the Tor browser protects you by routing your traffic through various different IP locations, and Tails OS includes built-in encryption, nothing is 100% anonymous or secure. Torand Tails' websites list a number of recommendations and best practices for remaining anonymous as best possible, like using HTTPS versions of websites, avoiding browser plugins or torrenting over Tor, and of course, not giving away personal details on websites you visit.
Finally, using Tor shouldn't get you in trouble with the authorities on its own but merely being a Tor user can arouse suspicion with the law. The anonymous network has long been a target of government agencies like the NSA and the FBI, which have successfully de-anonymized criminalsbefore. So to be clear, if you are up to something illegal it could land you in legal trouble.