What is Dark Web?
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| What is Dark Web |
The dark web is a part of the Internet that is not indexed by search engines. You have no doubt heard the talk of the "Dark Web" as a hotbed of criminal activity - and it is. Researchers Daniel King and Thomas Reid of King's College, London, categorized the content of 2,723 live dark web sites over a five-week period in 2015 and found that 57% of the host contained illegal content.
A 2019 study conducted by Dr. Michael McGires at the University of Surrey, In the Web of Profit, shows that things have gotten worse. Since 2016, the number of dark web listings harming an enterprise has increased by 20%. Of all listings (except those selling drugs), 60% could potentially harm enterprises.
You can buy credit card numbers, all kinds of drugs, guns, fake money, stolen membership credentials, hacked Netflix accounts, and software that helps you break other people's computers. Purchase login credentials for $ 500 to a bank account of $ 50,000. Get $ 3,000 in a fake $ 20 bill for $ 600. For $ 500 (express shipping included), buy seven prepaid debit cards each with $ 2,500 remaining. A "lifetime" Netflix premium account goes for $ 6. You can hire hackers to attack computers for yourself. You can purchase username and password.
But not everything is illegal, there is also a legitimate side of the Dark Web. For example, you can join a chess club or blackbook, a social network known as "Facebook of Tor".
Dark Web Sites
Dark web sites look very beautiful just like any other site, but there are significant differences. Instead of ending in .com or .co, dark web sites end in .onion. "A special-use top-level domain suffix that denotes an anonymous hidden service accessible through the tor network," according to Wikipedia. Browsers with appropriate proxies can access these sites, but others cannot.
Dark web sites also use a named structure that creates URLs that are often impossible to remember. For example, a popular commerce site called Dream Market goes by the unintentional address of "ejwlvm3z2lcca76.onion".
Many dark websites are set up by scammers who roam around constantly to escape the wrath of their victims. Even commerce sites that may have existed for a year or more may suddenly disappear if the owners decide to cash in and flee with escrow money they have on behalf of customers.
Law enforcement officers are getting better at finding and prosecuting the owners of sites that sell illegal goods and services. In the summer of 2017, cyber police teams from three countries successfully shut down AlphaBoy, the largest source of the Dark Web, sending shudders across the network. But many traders simply moved elsewhere.
The anonymous nature of the Tor network also makes it particularly vulnerable to DDoS, said Patrick Ticket, director of security and architecture at Keeper Security and the company's resident expert on the topic. "Sites are constantly changing addresses to avoid DDoS, which makes for a very dynamic environment," he said. As a result, "search quality varies widely, and a lot of content is outdated."
Difference between Dark Web and Deep Web
Sometimes the two words are used interchangeably as if they are more or less alike. This is highly inaccurate, as the deep web refers only to non-indexed pages, while the dark web refers to pages that are both non-indexed and illegible.
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| Difference between Dark Web and Deep Web |
This image, using the Iceberg metaphor, should be cleaned up in an easy way to understand it. As you can see, the ironically is that the Dark Web is actually deeper than the Deep Web.
The bottom line is this: the deep web can only be made up of non-indexed pages because search engines fail to see them or because they are not considered relevant enough to be indexed. In contrast, the Dark Web wants to hide, because it is the center of shady business on purpose.
The deep web is morally neutral, it can be used for good or evil. The Dark Web is where parts of the moral-deprivation economy and society come together.
As far as their relationship is concerned, not all deep web is dark web, but all dark web is deep web.
Key Difference
The Deep Web is commonly used for legal purposes that require anonymity but the Dark Web is sometimes used for illegal activities.
To access the Deep Web, you need a password, encryption, while to access the Dark Web you need the Tor Project or similar browser.
Deep and Dark Web are both hidden and not shown to traditional search engines.
The deep web is larger than the surface web, on the other hand, the size of the dark web is unquestioned.
What do these two words have in common?
What the Dark Web and Deep Web have in common is that they are both hidden from commercial search engines. You cannot access Google or Bing. The deep web is a generic, catch-all term that includes not only the Dark Web, but also "earthly content" according to Andy Greenberg at Wired. Including "registration-required web forums and dynamically created pages" (eg Gmail).
When people discuss the internet's seedable underbelly, where you can buy stolen data, drugs, weapons, child pornography, murders-for-hire - basically any illegal item or service you can dream of - that Is the dark web.
Greenberg noted that while the deep web is huge and accounts for 90-percent of the Internet, the Dark Web is likely only around .01 percent. The Dark Web, sometimes referred to as Darknet, is accessed by Tor (The Onion Router) or I2P (Invisible Internet Project), to maintain anonymity for users and site owners. Masked use IP addresses. In this way, people who use the Dark Web for illegal purposes cannot be traced, and it is difficult to tell who hosts a particular site.
Benefits of Dark Web
The Dark Web helps people maintain privacy and express their views freely. Privacy is necessary for many innocent people who are terrorized by stalkers and other criminals. The increasing tendency of potential employers to track posts on social media can make it difficult to engage in honest discussions in public. Finally, the popularity of the Dark Web with criminals is the perfect way for undercover police officers to communicate.
Dark Web Disadvantages
The Dark Web empowers ordinary people, but some people will inevitably misuse that power. The Dark Web can make it easier to commit some of the worst crimes. For example, the combination of the Dark Web and cryptocurrency makes it much easier to theoretically employ someone to commit murder. While the Dark Web promises privacy to its users, it can also be used to violate the privacy of others. Personal photos, medical records, and financial information have all been stolen and shared on the Dark Web.
More Web: Surface Web and Shadow Web
Another concept that you should be familiar with right now is the Surface Web: it refers to all websites that are accessible to search engines in general, the so-called vanilla parts of the Internet. You can also see it in the graph above.
Finally, the last concept you should know about is Shadow Web. It is reportedly a layer of the Internet, even deeper than the deep web, which is a well-known hub for criminal activity. Rumors say that this shadow web is a place where even deeper, more serious criminal activity occurs.
Nevertheless, according to investigations by the world's best cyber security researchers and hackers, this shadow web is only a rumor.
If you go to the deep or dark web, you may find a lot of advertisements that offer a gateway to this hidden corner of the web in exchange for bitcoin. This is a much talked about scam, so be careful if you go looking for it.
Sadly, this only contributes to the infamy of cryptocurrency, which in itself is not a bad thing for the economy and society.
However, since the Shadow Web concept is online and discussed on some Reddit groups and other forums (which sound like intrigues written by people who don't really understand much about how the Internet works) It does not mean that it will not become real at some point in the future. Still, regardless of whether it was real or would be real, paying for access is not the way to go.
Also, if it would actually be a hub for even more grueling activity than the Dark Web, then I don't know why you would want to go there, anyway, unless you're part of a special team, which The goal is to take them down.
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