Hello and welcome to CluentHub's new article on Dark Web. In this article we are going to have a brief knowledge on "What is Dark Web all about?", written by authors of CluentHub.
In This Blog:
- What is Dark Web?
- What is .onion?
- Dark websites
- Advantages of Dark Web
- Disadvantages of Dark Web
- How does Dark Web Work?
- Is Dark Web Legal?
- Dark web Vs Regular web
- Conclusion
- Steps to Safely browse the Dark Web
What is Dark Web?
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| image-google | source-https://2wtech.com/ |
Dark web is a term coined by Julian Assange in 2011 to refer to the ultra-secure, privacy-centric end-user applications offered by the non-peer-to-peer Tor browser, and all those around it, including hidden onion web portals, dark markets and hidden forums.
Tor, the product of which is classified by US law as a key tool for protecting privacy in cyberspace. It is becoming an increasingly popular platform for high-security activities, such as cybercrime and terrorist communication. The dark web phenomenon, although facing a loss in momentum, has nevertheless gained considerable traction during the past months.
Within the last week, several big-name dark web sites have experienced attacks on their servers from those who attempt to shut them down. Authorities believe that anonymous people are trying to shut down and halt dark web activity.
what is .onion?
.onion is an encrypted layer of the Internet that many people know about but not many understand.
.onion is not a specific site but it is a set of services hosted on servers that use .onion addresses.
Dark web sites:
Users can access dark web sites through multiple ways, with most people using Tor to access them. These services provide a platform for news and information by using encryption, anonymity, and anonymity for communication.
If this is the primary mechanism for accessing dark web sites, then why haven’t those advocating privacy online been able to shut down the dark web?
The dark web functions by using multiple layers of security in layers, including virtual private networks (VPNs), virtual servers, and various services. Without all of these layers of security, internet users would have no anonymity to hide their tracks and messages.
Why is the dark web a threat?
It is a big and ever-expanding threat because it is the opposite of the web that the government and corporations like. Some even believe that the dark web will lead to an unprecedented level of censorship.
Indeed, the dark web is only anonymous if users are not allowed to take any security measures to ensure the identity of those that connect to it. However, those who are trying to censor the dark web are only getting more effective.
This is because the dark web allows users to connect with each other in ways that would be impossible through the traditional web.
Advantages of dark web:
1)Real anonymity -
Whereas, on the open web, anyone can track your online activities, on dark web it’s just the opposite. There, no one can track your activities.
2)Privacy protection –
Whereas, on the open web, you can easily be tracked by anyone that is monitoring your activity, on dark web, your activity cannot be monitored, unless you have an account or log in.
3)High value market potential –
Many dark web forums have limited assets with their respective administrations, for example, individuals can only make transactions within the wallet that is provided, the marketplace is very big and high in demand. Also, people are exchanging products and services and sharing confidential and sensitive information.
Of course, on the open web, we have no idea of the people who may be paying you.
Disadvantages of Dark Web?
Here are the most common reasons why you should avoid dark web.
1) You can easily get robbed or kidnapped-
You might read many stories on the internet about dark web being used by people who love peace and love. People who trust and help other people.
But the majority of people using dark web are criminals. Yes! There are thousands of people who are so greedy, they think about stealing and committing robbery at every passing minute. And for that reason, most of the people who visit dark web can get robbed or kidnapped.
There is a real risk of getting robbed or kidnapped on dark web. Most people who are victims of robbery and kidnapping have been attacked or robbed by people they only just met in dark web.
2) Law enforcement agencies can easily track you-
This is the most common reason why most people should avoid dark web.
Most dark web sites have a reason to stay anonymous. They don't want to show their personal details or personal pictures in the public. They also don't want to show their real names on dark web forums. They just want to sell their illegal goods. They don't want the police or law enforcement agencies to arrest them or find them.
There are cases when law enforcement agencies have found out the true identities of dark web users. These criminals are usually arrested.
3) There is a risk of getting exposed if you get caught-
Your safety is important, but you shouldn't put your life in danger for the sake of hiding your identity.
No matter how hard you try to stay anonymous, but most dark web users are greedy. They will want to show their face and personal information on dark web forums.
Most people who are addicted to drugs will want to show their drugs in their profiles. They also show their pictures or email addresses. So if law enforcement agencies do their job properly, they can easily find you. And that will mean, your future will be in the hands of criminals.
4) You can be exposed if you are looking for a job-
Most of the dark web users are in need of a job. Some of them are looking for customers for their illegal business. Many are looking for customers for hosting websites on dark web.
It is not possible for dark web users to hide their real identity while seeking a job or an internship. When you search for a job on dark web forums, there is no way for you to hide your real identity. If you search for a job on dark web forums, your real identity will be found out.
5) Your Daily life can get affected-
Many dark web users use Bitcoin, and make regular payments for their illegal goods. Most dark web users also use other payment methods. But you need to be careful about your personal details on dark web. You should avoid revealing your personal details, e-mail, credit card details and other sensitive information.
This is because you might be hacked by a criminal group. And if you reveal your personal details, they can misuse your sensitive information. So it's better to stay anonymous.
6) Dark web marketplaces are full of Criminal activities-
Most dark web sites are selling drugs, firearms, stolen goods, child pornography, etc. Just think about it. Most criminals are selling drugs on dark web, which means you can get high just by reading their profiles.
Most of these websites offer a very easy way to get high drugs. And that is why it is very easy for someone to get addicted.
7) Many people die everyday through dark web-
Yes, people die daily through dark web. It is very hard to know whether a person is safe or not. Some users sell drugs, but there are also many people selling and supplying illegal goods. As we know, drugs and guns are very dangerous. And people get addicted very easily.
This is why it is very important to stay away from these illegal products on dark web.
Advantages of Dark web for bitcoin:
1)High transaction volume –
Because, the dark web is full of dark wallets and cryptocurrency traders and many of the bitcoin exchanges also accept bitcoin transactions. In case, if you are one of those people and you want to buy something with bitcoin, you can directly transfer bitcoin from your wallet and this makes the transaction very efficient.
2)Low transaction fees -
Although, on the open web, you can send funds with very high fees. However, if you are doing transactions in dark web of bitcoin, you can get those low fees for which the marketplace has such high demand.
Disadvantages of dark web for bitcoin:
1)Fully anonymous and secret –
On dark web of bitcoin, even the transaction is kept completely secret. And, even though, you have an account on the website, in case, you lose your account, you cannot get that account back. There is no information about your transactions.
How does dark web work?
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image-google | source-https://www.soscanhelp.com/ |
Many people still don't know exactly what the dark web is, and what makes it different from regular web pages.
We define dark web as web that has access to the internet through anonymity tools like Tor, I2P, Freenet, or other similar anonymity services that connect users to the internet via special servers, hidden behind layers of encryption. We take advantage of technologies to make web accessible in private by using the web anonymously. Most of these tools rely on a special type of encryption called blockchain.
Dark web is using web differently
The dark web is still part of the web, it just connects to hidden servers without using HTTP or HTTPS. It is often used to access confidential information (i.e. specific sites which are only accessible in a private web browser). You can access dark web using tools like The Onion Router (Tor).
When you access a dark web site, you will see two domains:
http://www.myweb.net/ or http://www.darkweb.net/
The dark web goes in through http://www.myweb.net, which is a legitimate web address. This web address will show up as a dark web domain, and then will redirect you to a dark web server which is actually a legitimate web server (http://darkweb.net/).
Dark web is web (same as regular web) with its own address. Websites like Bitcoin Magazine and Pastebin (the notorious website that shared some government secrets) are hosted on dark web. Dark websites are typically not owned or run by major companies. They exist in public and online directories and under free-hosting sites. This makes it possible for large organizations and other organizations to connect to the dark web with ease.
Most web sites usually have their own domains and IP addresses. When we refer to a web site as the "dark web site", it means that the website is accessed through Tor, and that it is a hidden part of the internet. It is a part of internet that is mostly accessed by dark web browsers or virtual private networks. In other words, we see this as a website that is not accessible to normal browsers. If it is accessible to normal browsers, it is normal web.
Examples of websites that are not accessible to normal browsers: Bitcoin Magazine, Facebook, ProPublica, secureDrop.
Example of websites that are accessible to normal browsers: GitHub, Web feeds, Quora, Chron.
Websites of Dark Web?
Dark Web comprises of hidden websites that only exist on the Dark Web – a part of the Internet that is not indexed by search engines. So unless the search engine detects these websites in their search results or notifies users about such websites in their search results, the website may not be discovered to the user. Therefore, Dark Web is only available on your devices and not available on the Web.
When you enter such dark websites, you will notice that the websites are opened in a browser with the Internet access as it is not possible to access such sites on a browser with restricted Internet access. Web of Web browser is available in the form of executable files. The technical processes used in websites of Dark Web to facilitate access to its content are not similar with normal web browser. Web of Dark web works by modifying the normal web browser to enable access to websites of Dark Web.
However, in Dark Web, you cannot browse through the websites directly. Instead, you have to load web pages of different websites to get various websites of Dark Web open in your web browser.
Is Dark Web Legal?
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| image-google | source-https://www.law.com/ |
Dark Web, one of the web’s dark web versions, like Tor or GPG Secure, is considered to be an anonymous web platform with certain important safeguards to protect the anonymity of users. The web provider assumes that some aspects of the Dark Web are prohibited by law and therefore should not be published online.
The Dark Web is not illegal; however, legal protections are typically applied through content restriction and privacy restrictions.
In the United States, the legality of Dark Web services and resources is legal to varying extents. According to UC Berkeley Law School, although the FBI and NSA have authority over the public safety aspects of the web, legal protection for users cannot be enforced without first taking the identity of the operator into account. The protection applies to public information like IP addresses and information about what has been visited.
In other jurisdictions, security experts say that the legality of Dark Web applications are not well defined and is generally up to the jurisdiction of the jurisdiction where the online resource is located.
Web developers are working on ways to protect privacy and anonymity. For example, HTTPS encryption was introduced to help users connect to secure web sites. HTTPS protects information, like users’ passwords and credit card information.
In this way, web users are secure and will continue to enjoy online privacy in the future. However, web developers will also continue to introduce new tools and services to protect privacy.
For example, Firefox recently released an experimental feature called Web Protect to help protect privacy in the Dark Web. Web Protect is a web browser plug-in that allows users to easily download an encrypted password from a secured web site. The password will remain secure even if the user chooses to share it or has other details stored on the web site.
Due to the complexity of web technologies, it will take many years to protect privacy on web-based content.
Browser Plugins like Firefox Web Protect help protect user privacy, but they do not provide any legal protection to web content.
Dark Web Vs Regular Web?
That depends on what exactly we mean by web, if it refers to regular web or to dark web. If we refer to regular web, it is a web which is easy to navigate. You have the power of accessing any website that you want without the requirement of any subscription.
But if we use web for dark web, it’s more difficult to find a particular website.
The main Difference between Regular graph and Dark web is speed.
Normal web is better than dark web if you want speed. With dark web, you can access more than 40% of websites. But if we compare speed on regular web, it is 20 times faster than dark web. But regular web is better than dark web because, normally, normal web can load quickly.
If we talk about dark web speed, you have to wait between 5-15 minutes for web to load. For regular web, you can open it in few seconds and it’s a completely different story.
If you are a regular web user, you should use dark web or regular web.
That’s what most of the users get confused. We can say that regular web is better, but for a lot of people, dark web is better than regular web.
Dark web is definitely a more secure place than regular web, but we should not forget that dark web can be as insecure as regular web. Also, regular web is not totally dark web. People usually use regular web on their devices.
I think dark web has its advantages, but if we compare both, regular web is a lot better than dark web.
Conclusion:
Dark web is more secure than regular web, and regular web is not exactly dark web. Also, while using dark web or regular web, we should not forget that regular web is as secure as dark web.
If you compare both, regular web is better than dark web.
Follow these steps to safely browse the Dark Web:
- Do not connect with questionable sites
- Preload web apps only on devices and browsers you are confident in
- Don’t leave sensitive stuff to sites that require a fake ID to retrieve
- Avoid malicious links and web apps with poor user feedback
- Be careful about scammers
- Check the site’s security profile and log in to see if it has been compromised
- Be careful of fake apps
- Approve apps you do trust
- Don’t install anything you don’t trust
- Monitor alerts when apps are bad
- Load apps only on devices and browsers you trust
- Take extra cautious if you are worried
- Speak with your IT professional about security concerns
- Don’t open emails or attachments you don’t trust
- Don’t use malicious links and web apps with poor user feedback
Additional security tips for users:
- Keep your passwords safe
- Clean your devices regularly
- Keep your apps up to date
- Monitor alerts when apps are bad
- Be extra cautious about scammers
- When in doubt, watch out for malicious links and web apps with poor user feedback
- Approve apps you do trust
- Ask about security
- Make sure you’re not exposing your private information
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