You may have heard about this mysterious place on the Internet called the 'Deep Web'. Interest in the deep spider web and dark spider web arose post-obit a few high profile information leaks, a growing interest in online privacy, references in mainstream media, and the widely publicized FBI investigation into online marketplace Silk Road that exposed the extent of online drug trafficking.

But what is exactly the deep web? Well it's not actually a 'identify' but rather anywhere other than the visible web that is crawled, indexed and accessed through links fetched by search engines like Google. The deep web is actually several times bigger than the indexed spider web, and it encompasses a lot more than the illegal or otherwise questionable activities that it is often associated with -- though there's certainly a lot of that going on, too. Let'south showtime by immigration up some of the defoliation amongst the different terms that tend to be thrown around while discussing the Internet's underground.

Note: This characteristic was originally published on 05/twenty/2016. Nosotros have revised information technology and bumped it as office of our #ThrowbackThursday initiative.

Surface Web, Deep Spider web, Dark Web

In uncomplicated terms, the Surface Web is annihilation that a search engine can detect by crawling links and identifying content online, while the Deep Web is anything that a search engine can't find. The Dark Web on the other hand merely represents a smaller portion of the deep spider web that has been intentionally hidden and is inaccessible through standard spider web browsers.

To exemplify this a bit farther, the deep web can really include things like academic databases, which can be accessed through a normal browser just are not accessible to search engines.

It also includes content inside mainstream websites that is simply not set up to exist accessed through a search engine. For example content posted on Facebook that is only available to the poster's friends, not the full general public, or results for specific queries on a travel booking website -- yous simply tin't go to the content by clicking through links like a search engine would.

Accessing the Dark Web

The Tor network is the most commonly known place where nighttime web content resides. This anonymous network consists of thousands of servers located all over the world run past volunteers and online privacy advocates. Its name is an acronym for 'The Onion Router' in reference to its namesake routing technique, which creates a path through randomly assigned Tor servers, or nodes, before reaching whatever website you are visiting. During this procedure data packets are wrapped in successive layers of packets that get "peeled off" at each node until reaching the destination.

Here is a more than technical explanation, but in concise terms, the result is that no 1 node knows the consummate path betwixt your calculator and a website, merely the last identify the parcel was, and the next place it will be. This makes it nigh impossible for anyone to trace the traffic back to you.

While finding content on the dark spider web can take time and plenty of patience, technically, accessing the Tor network isn't that complicated at all. You simply need to download and install the Tor browser available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is no different from installing any other piece of software and information technology'south very simple to use as it'south just a modified version of Firefox.

Protecting Yourself

If you're serious about the security of whatsoever it is yous're doing on the dark spider web, it'southward worth running an entirely separate environment from your principal calculator and internet connection. Tails Bone is a bootable operating organisation that's already preconfigured to maximize privacy and that you lot can run from a USB stick or a virtual machine. Tails has an installation wizard that guides you step-by-step through the process of setting up the software so that shouldn't pose much of a challenge either. Tails received a lot of press when it was disclosed that Edward Snowden was using it to avoid NSA snooping. Its sole purpose is preserving your privacy and anonymity online by relying on the Tor network and other tools to keep your activity secret.

Layering your location by starting at a random Wi-Fi hotspot then connecting to a VPN before loading Tor volition greatly increase your odds of anonymity.

Nosotros have written a more thorough, dedicated commodity to keeping yourself safe while surfing the seedy underbelly of the web. Y'all can read that here.

What Volition I Find Inside the Night Web?

Almost whatever type of illegal and legally questionable products and services can be found in the seedier corners of the web. I of the nigh prominent examples is the Silk Route, the now defunct online marketplace where you could score anything from drugs and have them mailed to you, hire a hitman, buy passports and credit carte du jour information, weapons -- you name it. Several copycats accept sprung and fallen since the Silk Route was taken downwardly in 2022.

But even though technologies such as Tor are used to facilitate illegal activities, the technology itself isn't inherently practiced or bad. In fact, you might exist surprised to learn that Tor was created with fiscal support from the United states of america government every bit a tool for fostering republic in repressive regimes, and that's exactly what it's used for a lot of the time. It's become popular with journalists and activists and even regular citizens who value privacy and freedom of expression.

Where to Get Started One time Y'all're Within

Finding content inside the deep or dark web is somewhat reminiscent of the early days of the world wide web before search engines like Altavista and Google fabricated finding content style easier. Y'all tin can traverse link directories like OnionDir and The Hidden Wiki which list sites nether a range of categories covering diverse services and interests -- blogs, hosting, forums, warez, hacking, to name a few.

There are also a few search engines like DuckDuckGo and you lot tin can find some guidance or related data on reddit, too. In that location will be a lot of sites that have been taken down or are offline so finding working, up-to-date links and directories can accept some fourth dimension.

Nothing is 100% Anonymous or Secure

Fifty-fifty though the Tor browser protects you past routing your traffic through various different IP locations, and Tails OS includes built-in encryption, nothing is 100% anonymous or secure. Tor and Tails' websites list a number of recommendations and best practices for remaining bearding as best possible, like using HTTPS versions of websites, avoiding browser plugins or torrenting over Tor, and of course, not giving away personal details on websites you visit. Nosotros have besides written our own list of security recommendations here.

Finally, using Tor shouldn't go y'all in trouble with the authorities on its ain simply only being a Tor user tin can arouse suspicion with the police force. The anonymous network has long been a target of government agencies like the NSA and the FBI, which have successfully de-anonymized criminals before. So to be clear, if y'all are up to something illegal information technology could state y'all in legal trouble.