Content
This is because they only work as gateways to the dark web, giving you access to a specific network. The deep web is all content online that isn’t part of the surface web; pages that aren’t indexed by standard search engines like Bing or Google. If you simply use Google to search for deep web content, you’ll get no results. Most of this deep web information is uninteresting and consists of data that is hidden behind a password or paywall.
- Earlier this year, a couple in the US was charged for selling drugs under the Dark Web vendor handle of MH4Life on various trade sites.
- As always, protect yourself from online threats with mobile Android security or iOS security software.
- You could unwittingly wind up on a site that tries to install malware on your device.
- The terms dark web and deep web are often used interchangeably, and wrongly so.
- A majority of the web consists of databases and intranets.
Tor is a variant of the popular Firefox web browser, modified to allow users to browse the web anonymously. The browser is designed to block or advise against user attempts to do things that might reveal their identity, such as resizing the dimensions of the browser window, for example. If you’ve ever heard of cybercrime, you’ll probably know that the cyber criminals of today are after more than just money. They take literally anything of value, which means credit card information, personal information, and more. All of these things are commodities on the Dark Web, to be bought, sold, or traded. Have a plan in place for when your information gets breached.
Search form
Onion sites often use scrambled names that make their URLs difficult to remember, minimizing the odds of being reported to authorities. It’s possible to search the dark web using specialized dark web search engines like Grams or link lists like The Hidden Wiki. However, these sources tend to be slow and unreliable, just like the dark web itself. Further, if you try to buy something on the dark web — even if it’s not illegal — there’s a chance you’ll be scammed. For example, they may hold money in escrow but then shut down the e-commerce website and take off with the money. Due to the anonymous nature of the dark web, it’s very difficult for law enforcement to find such perpetrators.
This means the VPN provider doesn’t see your real IP address and the VPN protects you from those bad exit nodes. For built-in Tor over VPN functionality, NordVPN operates specialized servers that automatically route you through the Tor network. You don’t even need to use Tor Browser, but keep in mind other browsers can still pass identifying information through the network. Alternatively, there’s IPVanish who claim to be the world’s number one VPN for Torand come highly recommended, you can save 60% on the annual plan here.
Alphabay Market Link
On the surface, dark websites look pretty much like any other. They contain text and images, clickable content, site navigation buttons and so on. Get leading antivirus, fast VPN, real-time safe browsing and instant ad blocking – all in one app.
There are numerous carding forums, PayPal and Bitcoin trading websites as well as fraud and counterfeiting services. Phishing via cloned websites and other scam sites are numerous, with darknet markets often advertised with fraudulent URLs. Basic online hygiene can prevent security lapses when accessing the deep web. For instance, using an unprotected public network to pay your bills might lead to cybercriminals being able to capture your payment information.
Who Are These Hackers on the Dark Web?
If you have a legitimate or viable need to access the dark web, you’ll want to make sure you stay safe if you decide to use it. Some of these are well-known, established threats that circulate in this nook of the web. However, others may be taking advantage of the dark web’s reputation to trick users out of large sums of money. Also, some users on the dark web may attempt phishing scams to steal your identity or personal information for extortion.
For this guide, we’ll use the Tor Browser as an example, but any other web browser that supports the Tor protocol will work just as well. Other examples of compatible web browsers include the Onion browser, Firefox and Chrome, but the latter two require you to install a separate plugin. Sites stored in the index are then ranked based on a variety of different factors, which is what decides how far up on the results page the sites appear in a search. If you use the widest definition of the deep web, then it’s a vast ocean of websites. With how mythologized the deep web and dark web have become, you’d be excused for thinking it’s difficult or dangerous to access. In reality, there’s nothing inherently dangerous about accessing either, and doing so is surprisingly simple.
Deep web content — which isn’t picked up by search engines, either — includes pages that typically require additional credentials to access. Your online banking accounts and email accounts, for instance, are examples of deep web content. Basically, it’s a part of the internet that isn’t indexed by search engines. As an average internet user, you won’t come across the dark web since you need a special browser to access it. It’s certainly not something you need to stress about in your day-to-day browsing, and you shouldn’t let it scare you off the internet. Unless you actively seek it out, you’ll likely never have any contact with the dark web in your lifetime.
How to Hide My IP Address in 2023: The 3 Best Options
Everything else, from academic journals to private databases and more illicit content, is out of reach. This deep web also includes the portion that we know as the dark web. The Tor Browser is currently available only for Windows, Mac, Android, and Linux.
You may need to find an onion site’s address on your own, and the names aren’t easy to remember. For example, the CIA’s onion address is ciadotgov4sjwlzihbbgxnqg3xiyrg7so2r2o3lt5wz5ypk4sxyjstad.onion, and the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica’s is propub3r6espa33w.onion. To access the dark web, you can download and install the free Tor browser. (You can also use it to browse the surface and deep web.) It’s perfectly legal, and the U.S. government is a major funder for the Tor Project, which creates the browser. The separation between the surface web and deep web is essential for how we use the internet. After all, you don’t want your bank statements appearing in someone’s search results.
