The Dark Web is a collection of thousands of websites that use anonymity tools like Tor and I2P to hide their IP address. While it's most famously been used for black market drug sales and even child pornography, the Dark Web also enables anonymous whistle blowing and protects users from surveillance and censorship.
The “dark web” is a part of the world wide web that requires special software to access. Once inside, web sites and other services can be accessed through a browser in much the same way as the normal web. However, some sites are effectively “hidden”, in that they have not been indexed by a search engine and can only be accessed if you know the address of the site. Special markets also operate within the dark web called, “darknet markets”, which mainly sell illegal products like drugs and firearms, paid for in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
With the rise and fall of the Silk Road—and then its rise again and fall again—the last couple of years have cast new light on the Dark Web. But when a news organization as reputable as 60 Minutes describes the Dark Web as “a vast, secret, cyber underworld” that accounts for “90% of the Internet” it’s time for a refresher.
In fact, the Dark Web is a collection of websites that are publicly visible, yet hide the IP addresses of the servers that run them. That means anyone can visit a Dark Web site, but it can be very difficult to figure out where they’re hosted—or by whom. Following figure shows more about darkweb
Accessing Darkweb
There are a number of ways to access the dark web, including the use of Tor, Freenet and I2P. Of these, the most popular is Tor (originally called The Onion Router), partly because it is one of the easiest software packages to use. Tor downloads as a bundle of software that includes a version of Firefox configured specifically to use Tor.
Tor provides secrecy and anonymity by passing messages through a network of connected Tor relays, which are specially configured computers. As the message hops from one node to another, it is encrypted in a way that each relay only knows about the machine that sent the message and the machine it is being sent to. Rather than conventional web addresses, Tor uses “onion” addresses, which further obsure the content. There are even special versions of search engines like Bing and Duck Duck Go that will return onion addresses for Tor services.
Services on the dark web would not have been as popular without a means of paying for them. This is something that Bitcoin has made possible. A recent study by Carnegie Mellon researchers Kyle Soska and Nicolas Christin has calculated that drug sales on the dark net total US$100 million a year. Most was paid by Bitcoin.
The dark Web ensures one’s privacy by effectively hiding the server or IP details from the public. The dark Web requires special kinds of software to access. This software acts as a gateway to the dark Web. Once the user gains access, then all the dark websites and other services can be accessed in a simple way with help of browsers.
ome of the categories of Web-based hidden services include:
- Drugs
- Fraud
- Gambling
- Chatting
- Hacking
- Hosting
- Search
- Anonymity
- Whistleblower
Most dark websites are not directly accessible via a normal search made through a search engine; they effectively hide themselves. They are accessible only if the addresses of those sites are known to the user. Some methods which hide websites from normal searches are:
* Private Web which requires registration
* Contextual Web varies as per IP
* Limited access content where access is limited to certain licensed contents
* Scripted content which is accessible only through links generated by JavaScript or dynamically downloaded from Web servers
* Non-HTML/text content
Software where data are intentionally hidden from the regular Internet and made accessible only with special software, such as Tor, I2P, or other darknet software .Web archives which are archived versions of Web pages, including websites which have become inaccessible, and are not indexed by search engines such as Google.
Advantages
Many things that benefit from relative secrecy benefit from the dark web. The obvious use cases are for journalists and dissidents to communicate with each other or for subjugated persons to share their opinions without censorship. There are also less obvious reasons we can highlight in more detail.
1. Hidden Search Results:
Searching the Deep Web (also known as the "Deepnet" or "hidden Web") provides access to sites that are have not been indexed by search engines, including database entries. These searches often yield links you would never find through a source such as Google, as Google does not index database entries.
2. Personal stories:
Like Quora, the dark web offers opportunities for individuals to share their personal stories. On some sites, survivors of abuse can discuss their experiences, name their aggressors, or console their peers who would otherwise feel uncomfortable talking about their experiences. It's like having a few pen pals around the world that no one else knows about.
3. Circumvention:
Some countries subjugate their citizens on an arbitrary basis, including sexuality or religion. The dark web offers opportunities for people to form communities in a less extensively policed forum, where they can share tips (see personal stories) or plan to meet up in person. On this respect, the dark web can be used to circumvent persecution.
4. Markets:
The dark web offers access to illicit goods, including weapons, drugs, and counterfeits. However, if you require access for a benign purpose, where else would you turn to? This activity is criminal by definition, but that's doesn't prevent their "positive uses."
5. Literature:
Access to books can also be restricted for a variety of factors, and the dark web offers plenty of opportunities to read books that may either be doctored or entirely prohibited in the analog world. Have you read the original Grimm's Household Tales (more often known as Grimm's Fairy Tales)? They are not in many bookstores or libraries, but their available on the open web and on the dark web. For billions of people, access through the open web is restricted, leaving only one option.
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