BEHIND THE SCENES OF DARK WEB — A HIDDEN NETWORK THAT’S DEBATABLE

The dark web, the hidden face of the INTERNET, continues to make headlines, but what is it exactly? This subpart of the deep web (the deep or invisible web, not indexed) often confused with the dark net is both an encrypted space of freedom ensuring the anonymity and non-traceability of online exchanges and a favorite place for Trafficking and perversions of all kinds. Decryption.

DEEP WEB, DARK WEB OR DARK NET?

To fully understand what the dark web is, it is essential to distinguish between the different areas that make up the World Wide Web. In addition to the web that everyone knows, called the web surface or the referenced web, there is the deep web which refers to the area where the pages are not indexed by traditional mainstream search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo.

These are usually pages of websites and web services that are either poorly or voluntarily not indexed by developers, accessible only by entering a password, or not containing hypertext links.

FOR EXAMPLE — This could be pages of online bank accounts, private forums, databases hosted by private business servers, press articles reserved for subscribers, online reservations or email accounts. As evidenced by the famous metaphor of the iceberg, the deep web, represented by the immersed part, would be according to some specialists 200 to 500 times more important than the surface web. It is within this huge network that the dark INTERNET is, which refers to the content broadcast over overlapping networks (or overlay networks) called darknets.

NAVIGATING THE DARK WATERS OF THE DARK WEB

Access to the dark web through the dark net infrastructure requires the use of specific software, the best known is TOR (The Onion Router or Onion Routing).

It was Developed in the 90’s by a US Navy lab, and its purpose was to hide IP addresses and protect sensitive US military data. Published a few years later under a free license, TOR is since a project supported by various NGOs, the Mozilla Foundation or the EFF (Electronic Frontier). Famous for privacy and freedom of expression, this parallel network guarantees total anonymity by passing communication data randomly through relay points (or nodes of the network) distributed throughout the world.

Multiple layers of encryption guard all data, and to scramble the tracks, the IP address and location of users continuously change at regular intervals. With this system, it is challenging to trace traffic and identify the IP address of users. TOR is not 100% foolproof.

However, the data that flows between the last node (called the output relay) and the final destination (the user’s terminal) are not encrypted and may be potentially compromised. Some also believe that the US government behind the project could have placed back door devices in the system for spying purposes. Without revealing their method, the FBI and more recently French intelligence agents managed to identify TOR users.

EASIER ACCESS

To navigate the hidden web, the simplest solution is to go through The Hidden Wiki, the hidden counterpart of Wikipedia, which indexes the URLs of the most famous sites. These are classified by categories: blogs, couriers, forums, social networks, libraries, as well as the main illegal marketplaces (drugs, pornography, finance).

There are also dedicated search engines such as “TORCH,” “Not Evil” or “Ahmia.fi” making access to “.onion” sites more and more straightforward. Before navigating the dark waters of the dark web, it is essential to know that you can find both exciting things and the worst horrors.

It is, therefore, better to be extremely cautious before clicking on a link or downloading a file on the dark web. The use of TOR, which is neither more nor less than a tool, is not illegal, but the mere fact of accessing specific sites can have serious consequences.

CONCLUSION

So, now you know what is behind the dark web, and you can quickly determine that you are not safe in this digital world. Therefore to save yourself from online scams and frauds you are advised to hire the experts’ services like WEB EAGLE.