Although you may already know this, there is a large part of the internet that can’t be accessed through regular means. By 2001, this section of the internet was estimated to be up to 550 times larger than the part of the web you could access using a regular search engine and as the internet has grown in the recent years, this difference in magnitude may have become even bigger.
But what exactly are these non-indexed web pages, what purpose do they serve and how does one access them?
The Deep Web
‘Deep Web’ is a term that refers to the whole universe of web pages that aren’t indexed by search engines. It consists mostly of pages that people wouldn’t normally search for, like pages containing files of a cloud storage service, legal or academic records, government databases, email information and so on.
There are many ways in which you can access the information contained in these pages. This usually means using a specialized search engine that searches the web for a specific kind of content. Google, for example, provides Google Scholar for academic searches. Yet there are some more general engines like DeeperWeb, which happens to be powered by Google, that let you search the deep web in a way a bit more similar to the way you’d search the ‘clear net’.
However, there are other uses to the deep web. Some people do create functional websites and keep them without an index intentionally. It is not uncommon to see people referring to this set of websites as the ‘dark web’.
The Darknet or Dark Web
This subset of the deep web is usually mistaken for the whole thing. It contains full websites that are kept hidden on purpose because its users don’t want to be found easily for many reasons. To access said websites, you’re required special navigation tools that guarantee your anonymity while online.
The dark web, as it name suggests, has a shady history. There are records of sites dedicated to trading drugs, weapons, child pornography and even people. The anonymity guaranteed by the browsers and VPNs used to navigate these sites allow such activities to flourish. A clear example of that was the site formerly known as The Silk Road, which served as a marketplace for all sorts of items that were illegal in most countries around the world.
While it is true that these places exist, the dark web’s main goal is to give real anonymity to its users, so a large part of it is also dedicated to the exchange of information in the form of blogs, chat rooms, and forums. Edward Snowden used this part of the web to communicate with journalists during the whole NSA scandal and is most likely still doing it, for instance.
What you intend to do in the darknet is entirely up to you. Anonymity can be a very powerful tool and you should at least learn to use it properly in case you ever need to use it, so here we’ll show you how to access the darker web and survive the attempt.
Tor Project
The first and perhaps the most important tool you will need to access the dark web is access to a network protected from traffic analysis, which is precisely what the Tor browser gives you. With this specialized browser, you can navigate any part of the web knowing that your activity won’t be traced back to you, ensuring you remain anonymous on any site you visit, whether you are in the clear or the dark web.
The Tor Project is the work of a community dedicated to helping people remain anonymous on the web. They provide internet users with all sorts of tools to protect their identities online, with the browser being the most popular one. If a site on the darknet has a URL, then it will most likely end with .onion, instead of your regular .com, to signify that the site can only be accessed with the Tor browser or an equivalent.
Browsing
After you’ve acquired the Tor browser, you can now navigate through the dark web freely. Unless you are navigating the clear web, you should avoid sharing personal information at all costs, but this is only the most basic piece of advice. There are many other precautions you should take if you plan on making use of any of the marketplaces of the dark web.
First, you must create a new email with enabled encryption, many email service providers give you this option but you have to activate it in some, so make sure it is on before you send anything. Once you’ve done this, it is good to pick a pseudonym to use on every site you register so that you can be recognized by the people you exchange information with.
If you plan on spending or receiving money, then you must also set up an anonymous Bitcoin wallet since using your credit card for payments is not really an option. Because of the anonymity it provides, bitcoin is the main currency in this part of the web, so you should at least learn how it works if you haven’t already.
Now, all this advice is useless if you don’t know any website on the darknet, but as you’d expect, there are many ways to find sites that suit your needs, you just have to know where to look. There are a couple of search engines that index .onion pages like NotEvil, which mocks Google’s “don’t be evil” slogan.
Reddit is also a good source of addresses that might interest you, you should aim for the subreddits related to the deep web and Tor itself. You can also use Grams and any of its sister sites to find marketplaces and other similar activities.
Watch Your Back
The Snowden scandal, among other things, revealed that one can never be too careful when it comes to online security. You should be aware that while Tor does ensure that your activity remains anonymous, your ISP can still identify the packets coming from and going to the Tor network. Depending on where you live, this might be considered a suspicious activity that could get you into trouble. Adding extra layers of security can be annoying but a very important measure to take if you’re really concerned about your privacy.
One of the ways you can do this, and perhaps the most efficient one, is using a VPN while you browse the deep web. In case you are not familiar with them, Virtual Private Networks are networks that route your traffic through a set of servers to ensure your IP address and other information about your online activity can’t be tracked. This way, not even your ISP can know the sites you’re accessing, making you completely untraceable online.
There are many VPN service providers that can deliver what you need for a safe navigation. Reliable providers like TorGuard allow you to choose from a variety of VPN servers distributed all over the globe. This way you can fool trackers making them believe you are connecting from somewhere completely different from your actual location. They also allow P2P connections and do not keep any logs about your activity, leaving no trace in case their servers were to be seized by law enforcement.
If you can, you should connect to the Tor network from a relatively clean OS, this is, from a computer without a lot of programs in it, preferably with Linux installed. This is recommended because much popular software contains Trojan horses and backdoors that enable some law enforcement agencies to track your online activity. Linux happens to be immune to most malware out there so using it would add an extra layer of protection that could make a difference. Just try to watch your back as much as you can.
