Content
Illegal drugs — and prescription drugs — are peddled on the dark web. You might also find toxic chemicals that can cause other types of damage. The dark web is a different story — and probably what you might have assumed the deep web was if you read about it in a newspaper or saw a story on TV. But remember, the deep web and the dark web are two distinctly different things. The deep web is a pretty safe place, especially when you compare it with the dark web.
Many people browse the web daily with abandon and even with increased cyber threats today, there is still the mindset that the web is a safe place to just stumble around. Macros and apps which run scripts like JavaScript open a whole new can of worms and raise your risk profile considerably. Some normal sites like YouTube need them, but if a site on the dark web is asking you to enable scripts, think twice.
How to search the dark web (knowing your onions)
There are a variety of private and encrypted email services, instructions for installing an anonymous operating system and advanced tips for the privacy-conscious. Dark web search engines exist, but even the best are challenged to keep up with the constantly shifting landscape. The experience is reminiscent of searching the web in the late 1990s. Even one of the best search engines, called Grams, returns results that are repetitive and often irrelevant to the query.
Whatever you search will create a unique query of their database and serve a dynamic page of results. Even the page for a book title does not have a static page and cannot be navigated by clicking through links from the homepage. Interestingly, the deep web makes up around 96% of the internet. Some parts of the deep internet have never even been accessed by humans.
In the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks, an actual such site was hacked by an Anonymous-affiliated hacker group, GhostSec, and replaced with an advert for Prozac. The Rawti Shax Islamist group was found to be operating on the dark web at one time. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA. Nicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies.
Secure your computer before accessing the dark web
There are different “privacy networks”, all composed of individual computers allowing them to create a “decentralized web”. There are many different privacy networks, however, in this post, we will focus only on the most popular one – the TOR network. And then there’s the bad stuff – contract killers, child porn, drugs, and other nasty stuff which share the same benefits of anonymity as the good sites. This is probably going to be one of the longest posts I’ve written on 99Bitcoins, but also the most interesting of them all. If you just want to go ahead and learn how to access the Darknet, you can skip to the bottom of the post and watch the video tutorial.
- If you decide to venture to the dark web, it’s smart to be selective about the websites you access.
- I tested the dark web version of Facebook and it worked very well — I successfully logged into my account , browsed my news feed, and chatted with my friends.
- You probably check your email and your credit card statements online without worry.
- Websites will track you, to give you a personalized experience.
- However, legal parties have made use of this framework as well.
Many internet service providers and governments may be suspicious of Tor use, and a VPN will hide your internet activity and prevent anyone from knowing that you’re using Tor. Yes, but you need to take some precautionsto avoid cyber threats. In addition to the Tor browser, you should use an antivirus program to protect your device from malware infections, and a VPN to secure your IP address and traffic.
Are sites on the dark web illegal to use and visit?
Other dark web search engines include Not Evil, Torch, Haystack, and Ahmia. The subreddit r/deepweb is a good starting point for asking more experienced users about how to search the dark web and deep web for the content you want. Lastly, The Hidden Wiki is a collection of dark web links — but the links may not work and may lead to dangerous websites. Surface web search engines can’t access the dark web, but specialized dark web search engines can help you find what you’re looking for. DuckDuckGo is a popular privacy-focused search engine that doesn’t track you across the web when you use it.
Tor with a good VPN like NordVPN should be used by anyone who is accessing the dark web on their Android phone while also being concerned about their security. Instead, use a VPN to encrypt all of your traffic inside a VPN tunnel, preventing attackers from seeing what you’re trying to access, concealing your identity, and preventing data manipulation. Sign in with your current NordVPN account and use the Onion over Tor option to safeguard your phone as well. By encrypting your data, masking your IP address, and spoofing your location, you will have the best safety possible while browsing the internet. So, rather than a deep web guide, this is more of a how-to guide on how to access the dark web on a phone.
Kidnapping & Sex Trafficking
When the user connects to Tor, their Internet traffic is re-routed through random nodes before reaching the final node . Normally, when you want to visit a website on the Internet, you type that site’s domain name and your server sends a request out there to find that domain. If the server finds the domain with a matching IP address, they return it to you and you can access that website. Congratulations, you now have the Tor browser and can access the dark web.
While the surface and deep web can be accessed using a regular web browser, you need special software to access.onion sites. Tor is the most commonly used browser for the dark web; however, additional networks include Freenet, Riffle, and I2P. You can find both legal and illegal websites/activities on the dark web, as it isn’t regulated in any way. To your surprise, you don’t need any special tools or a darknet browser to access the deep web; you just need to know where to look.
