Layers of the Web

The World Wide Web is filled with an almost immeasurable amount of webpages with new ones being added everyday. However, has it ever occurred to you that only a small portion of those webpages are actually easily accessible to the general public? The internet can actually be divided up into three layers which are the Surface web, Deep web, and Dark web.

Surface web

While the Surface web may seem quite large, in reality it’s only a small part of a much bigger whole. Web pages considered to be apart of the Surface web would be those that are easily accessible by the general public and could be found through your standard search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Some examples of a Surface website would be Amazon, Youtube, Wikipedia, and Facebook.

Deep web

Most of the information that exists on the Internet is present within the layer known most commonly as the Deep web. Unlike the Surface web the Deep web is not easily accessible to the public and consists of pages that you can’t find through your standard search engines. Pages that exist within the Deep web are not easily accessible because either they have not been indexed or they exist behind restrictions such as signups/logins, paywalls, etc. As for pages that have not been indexed it is possible to reach these pages via a link or typing in the exact web address into a web browser however they may be restricted. Deep web pages usually consist of information that you would normally want to limit to yourself or a group of people. All of this is perfectly legal by the way. The websites that I mentioned earlier as well as many others actually contain large portions of pages that exist within the Deep web.

Dark web

The Dark web is not exactly its own layer but more like a sub-layer of the Deep web. One way of accessing the Dark web is through the usage of a specialized browser called Tor(the Onion router). What Tor does is it allows its users to access sites ending in the suffix .onion which are sites normally not accessible by your standard browser. It also allows users to retain anonymity when browsing due to its built in form of encryption. In addition to Tor though if you want to be truly safe when browsing the Dark web it’s typically recommended that you use a VPN as well as a Virtual Machine. As for what goes on in the Dark web when people talk about all the illegal activities that go on in the Deep web they are most likely referring to the Dark web. Here is just a couple of the goods/services you can find on the Dark web.

• Credit card numbers
• Drugs
• Fake College degrees
• Poisons
• Contract killers
• Weapons
• Social Security numbers
• Uranium
• Government data
• Counterfeit goods

While all that may seem pretty bad there is a slight bright side to the usages of the dark web. Some people live in areas where their rights may be limited and what they can view, browse, and do are restricted by their own government. Therefore, they look to the Dark web as a place where they can browse safely and be able to communicate with the outside world.