Introduction to dark web

I was always fascinated with the concept of dark web and used to watch many videos on youtube regarding the subject. Recently I got a chance to do a review paper regarding different aspects of dark web. This article is a basic introduction to the dark web for those who are interested in exploring the depth of the web. 

Levels of the web

There are 3 levels in the web. 

1. Surface web
2. Deep web
3. Dark web

Surface web is the web that is visible to all of us. Where the general services we use such as Linkedin, Facebook etc is presented. Simply it is the indexed part of the web by any search engine such as google, yahoo.  Then the deep web can be identified as anything search engines cannot find. Though people portrait this part of the web as illicit, the truth is deep web can be some pages in a website that cannot be reached by the common search engines but only through the website itself. This can be medical records, legal documents, university databases etc.  Dark web which I’m going to talk about is a part of the deep web. It is the part of the web which is hidden intentionally and only accessed by special search engines through a unique process.

There are many ways to enter the dark web. To enter .onion domain you can use a search engine called Torr. These special search engines are used to avoid the backtracking. But I highly recommend you to use precautions before entering to the dark web. Because dark web contains malware, ransomware, trackers and other harmful stuff. Using a strong VPN connection, covering your webcam, making sure your firewall is up and running are just basics. There are many tutorials on the process of entering to the dark web. I have to clear the fact that entering the dark web is not illegal. As long as you don’t browse or enter websites with illegal content. 

What illegal content is in the dark web exactly? Well, there is common illegal stuff like drugs, illegal products, fake ids, fake passports, pornography and the list goes on. But there are more bizarre things in the dark web which are beyond our imagination. There are sites where you can find professional assassins, human trafficking,  organs for sale and terrorism. A site called “cloudenine” provides information about well-known celebrities, politicians, public figures as well as individuals. The accuracy of the information is not guaranteed. Yet to see that this information contains public email addresses and certain IP addresses are frightening. There is also verity of malware, spyware, ransomware that are available for purchasing.

But there are also advantages in dark web. Freedom of privacy is one of them. Then there are resources that are useful for study purposes in different fields. The dark web can be used for military activities for its anonymous nature. It has also become a platform for activists to interact. 

In my opinion, the best way to deal with cybercrimes in dark web is to capture only the culprits. Indexing dark web will not prevent cyber crimes from happening. We humans will always find a way to be undiscovered. The best example for this is when FBI seized a child pornography site called playpen and hosted it in one of their servers for weeks. Then they were able to track down hundreds of members using this site. They framed only the criminals and did not affect other dark web users. Anonymity is not illegal. It is the crimes that should be focused and should be prevented.  

Hope this article brought you some knowledge of dark web and if you are interested I suggest you to read some research papers regarding the subject.