Another great source to find and explore dark web marketplaces or other sections is to visit Reddit’s resourceful forum. You can look for information on /r/deepweb, /r/TOR, or /r/onions, of which the latter is useful to find hidden wikis and more. Many of these Reddits have rules prohibiting linking to illegal sites and services, so you likely won’t find anything illegal there.
This makes it impossible to track down the physical server under ordinary circumstances. Yes, there is nothing inherently illegal about accessing the deep web. If you’ve followed the news in the last two decades, you’ve probably heard stories and seen headlines about the deep web or dark web. However, you might have found yourself asking, What is the deep web? As news outlets rarely concern themselves with explaining exactly what it is besides being a place where you can anonymously acquire illegal goods.
Is the Dark Web Safe?
By contrast, to access dark web websites, you need special tools or software like Tor Browser. Just because a page is not accessible via links or hasn’t been discovered by search engines doesn’t mean it is private or illegal. There are areas of the internet that are considered the deep web for some but not for others. For example, heavy internet restrictions in China have walled off large chunks of the internet that people in most other countries can freely access.
Then, there are plenty of legal sites to visit, from dark web search engines to Bitcoin wallets, privacy tools, and news sites. Learn more about our various degree and certification programs today by requesting more information. Given its anonymous nature, the dark web is also used for illicit and even illegal purposes. These include the buying and selling of illegal drugs, weapons, passwords, and stolen identities, as well as the trading of illegal pornography and other potentially harmful materials. Several sites hosting illegal material have been discovered by government agencies and shut down in recent years, including Silk Road, AlphaBay, and Hansa. The dark web’s anonymity has also led to cybersecurity threats and various data breaches over the last few decades.
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Once you download and launch it, it will connect you to the TOR network and you’re good to go. In order to access the Tor network, you have to remain anonymous. This is not a request, it’s a prerequisite, and this is done through a special web browser called, surprisingly enough, TOR.
Other deep web sites are accessible by anyone but are removed from the surface and can’t be found through search engines. To find a book in their catalog, you must first browse the site with an internal search function. It’s locked behind passwords and isn’t indexed by search engines.
The End of the Silk Road
The Tor network and other networks that use onion routing emerged to protect online communications; not to support criminal actions. The Onion Router uses three layers of encryption and a specific internet traffic routing mechanism to ensure complete anonymity. It combines strong layers of encryption with the ability to randomly bounce internet traffic through the Tor network of relays. You actually use the Deep Web as part of your daily routine. Every time you log into your email account, check your online banking details, or use social media, you’re on the Deep Web.
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- Intranetsfor educational institutions, corporate enterprises, and governments are used for exchanging and organizing internal information.
- Link lists like the Hidden Wiki are the best example of this.
- However, maintaining security procedures is critical even though these websites are legitimate.
- And remember to use discretion and common sense when using aggregator sites.
That way, you can change your passwords and protect your accounts before anyone can use your data against you. Some hackers offer ransomware as a service , where cybercriminals can “rent” a strain of ransomware from its creator in exchange for a fee or a percentage of their ransom payments. Others sell software exploits that other cybercriminals can use to infect victims with malware and steal personal data. The quickest way to access the dark web is to download and install Tor Browser, which will route your traffic through the Tor network and let you access the dark web.
Start the Tor Browser
This connection methodology enables users to interact with the dark web with minimal risk of their activity being tracked or otherwise exposed. Many websites on the deep web avoid showing up in search engine results by blocking the bots that ‘crawl’ the internet to collect information for search engine indexes. Not accessible by web search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. The anonymity offered by Tor allows both hosts and users to cloak their identities. By setting up the server correctly, hosts can even mask the location of their servers. While the content on the dark web has the potential to be more dangerous, this content is usually walled off from regular users.