this post was written for your knowledge on the internet hijackers and for your safety on the web not for anything else and beware off fraudsters
There are two webs as said by the source. There’s the normal web most
people use every day, which is easily accessible and indexed by search
engines. And then there’s the “dark web”–hidden websites that won’t show
up when you search Google, and can’t be accessed without special
software.
Darknets Explained
The “dark web” is a subset of the “deep web”. The deep web is just the part of the web that isn’t accessible by search engines. You won’t find these websites when you use a😕 search engine like Google or Bing, but they’re otherwise normal websites. The “dark web” is a smaller part of the deep web that can’t be accessed without special software.
The dark web exists on darknets, which are “overlay networks”.
They’re build on top of the normal Internet, but they require special
software to access, so they aren’t normally visible or accessible to
people who aren’t in the know.
For example, the free software Tor
hides a darknet. While you can use Tor to anonymize your web browsing
activity on normal websites, Tor also offers .onion sites, or “Tor hidden services”.
These are special websites that can only be accessed through Tor. They
use Tor’s anonymity to cloak themselves, hiding where the server is
located–assuming the server is configured correctly. Only people
connected to Tor can view them, so they aren’t normally accessible and
it’s difficult for anyone to track who visits them.
In theory, it would be impossible to track down these servers and see
who visits them. In practice, Tor has had some security flaws and Tor
hidden services are sometimes configured incorrectly and may expose
their real location to the authorities.
Tor’s “hidden services” are the most popular darknet, so we’re focusing
on it here. But there are other darknets designed to serve other
purposes, like file sharing networks designed for secret sharing of
pirated software and media files.
What Will You Find on the Dark Web?
Darknets hide websites that don’t want to be on the normal internet,
where they can be tracked down. These websites comprise what’s known as
the dark web.
The dark web provides anonymity–both for people visiting the websites
and the websites themselves. Political dissidents in a oppressive
country could use the dark web to communicate and organize.
Whistleblowers can leak secrets on the dark web using sites like The New Yorker’s Strongbox,
reducing the risk they’ll be tracked down. Even Facebook offers its
website as Tor hidden service, making it more safely accessible to
people in countries where Facebook may be blocked or monitored.
The US government provides some funding for the Tor project to create
software that people in oppressive countries can use to access
information and organize without censorship or monitoring, and the
darknet helps enable that.
This anonymity enables other sorts of websites, though, that would
otherwise be stomped out on the normal web. Ones that most people would
agree should not exist. You’ll find websites selling stolen credit
cards, lists of social security numbers , forged documents, counterfeit
currency, weapons, and drugs. You’ll also find gambling websites and
directories of criminal services, including people who advertise
themselves as assassins. Payment for such services generally involves
Bitcoin, a digital currency.
One of the most widely known examples of a dark website was Silk Road, a
huge black market website where drugs were offered for sale, with
payments made in Bitcoin and drugs mailed to buyers through the postal
system
It’s worth noting that not everything you see on the dark web is
legitimate–most of it might not be, especially the more extreme
listings. Are the criminal services and products advertised real, or do
they just exist to scam people out of their money? Perhaps some of them
are traps laid by the authorities to catch people who try to hire
assassins, buy weapons, or acquire counterfeit currency.
There’s a lot of nasty stuff on the dark web. We’re not exaggerating
here. Search for lists of Tor hidden services–that is, lists of .onion
sites–and you’ll quickly see that most of them are either criminal or
perhaps just downright repulsive.
You Probably Don’t Want to Visit the Dark Web
So, when should you visit the dark web and why? Well…you probably shouldn’t visit it at all.
If you’re in a oppressive country and want to access social networking
or news websites that are blocked or censored by your government, the
dark web will be useful to you. If you’re a whistleblower and you need
to leak documents to the media while maintaining your anonymity, that
might be another good reason to visit the seedy underbelly of the web.
But we don’t recommend clicking around and exploring the dark web
without a good reason. There’s a lot of nasty stuff on the dark web–even
if a good amount of what you’ll find there are scams.
Image Credit: Carolin Zöbelein
First Source:howtogeek.com
Second Source: prologga.blogspot.com