The meaning of the word and concept of the dark web that comes into our mind makes us more confusing and fearful for those who have the least idea about it. Many questions start haunting us like is it dangerous? How to access it? How does it work? Who is the creator? Well here is a detailed article for all the questions. There are three types of layers of the internet – surface web, deep web and dark web. Surface web can be accessed through search engines easily, deep webs can be accessed through passwords and those who are authorized can do so and last comes dark web which cannot be accessed easily and needs special software, authorization or configurations to get the content. Deep and dark web though sound same have different meanings. The dark web is much deeper than deep web. The conventional search engines do not index the encrypted content that is put up online on dark web.
Dark websites look similar to any other site that we normally access but the difference is it never ends in .in, .com, .net but has ends in .onion. A browser that has approximate proxy can reach such sites. The Tor browser is usually used to access the dark web. Their URLs too are difficult to remember. It is a place for illegal activities. Those who want to keep their names anonymous while doing the business adopt such a dark web. Noble works are also carried out through the dark web where certain things need to be kept in dark. The things here are shady and most dangerous such as drug dealers, child pornography, etc.
The dark web is a part of the World Wide Web and is run on private networks where communication cannot be done easily. This helps it to keep the anonymity however this has given rise to illegal actions. Such illegal trading is impossible on the surface web such as dealing in utmost perverse pornography which is brought here. Tor browsers can conceal the identity of the user but not the locations.
Malware, drugs, guns, credit cards that are stolen, banking information are sold on the dark web. It is used for various reasons but the usage of illegal activity has increased considerably. If made in the positive way the dark web can be very useful. It can be a very good tool for whistleblowers.
Now the questions that arise are who created the dark web when it has so many adverse effects. The US government created it for exchanging information by the spies to keep it anonymous. Tor (the onion router) was developed by the US military in the 90s. It was later released for the public to use it. It is known as the onion router because there layers of encryption that use the technique of onion routing. The .onion domain is used to host the websites. However, it has become a problem for the dark web hides the identity, hides what and where one is doing on the site.