The Internet is not only what can be seen by doing a search on Google, opening pages for information search, social networks or instant messengers. The web is made up of different parts that are not always accessible using common tools that are part of the daily life of users. It’s about the dark web.
The dark web is hidden from various search engines. This network provides anonymity for users. In addition, you will need to use Tor to log in and navigate. Also, trading on the dark web should not be underestimated, as payments are made using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to ensure anonymity.
How the Dark Web Works
To navigate the dark web, users will need special software called Tor (The Onion Router). The user remains anonymous while browsing. Of all the networks that make up the dark web, Tor is the most popular.
Through the Tor network, you can connect to regular public websites. But the browser can also be used to access so-called “.onion sites”, whose providers also remain anonymous. More than half of the approximately 30,000 dark websites offer illegal content.
Dark web sites can only be accessed in encrypted form, so search engines such as Google or Yandex cannot find them. This means that users need to know where they want to access or know the address of the .onion page.
Invisible Internet Project (I2P) is another anonymous network project. Users with this tool can browse websites and use services without disclosing a single byte of their information to others. Although I2P was introduced in 2003, the project continues to improve and expand.
It is based on the principle of overlap, that is, an anonymous and secure layer functions on top of another network. One of the main characteristics of I2P is decentralization, since there are no DNS servers on this network and they are replaced by “address books” that are updated automatically.
All I2P users can get their own key that no one can trace. Here are some differences from the Tor Browser:
- I2P uses its own API, while Tor uses SOCKS.
- I2P tunnels are unidirectional, unlike Tor.
Tor uses onion routing, sending its traffic through a well-known eight-proxy method, which by itself does not protect against decryption attempts. On the other hand, I2P relies on traffic encryption.
History
The term “darknet” first appeared in 2002 in the paper “The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution” by Peter Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado, and Brian Willman, four Microsoft researchers. In it, they call it a set of networks and technologies that could revolutionize digital content sharing.
In the 70s, the first message was sent between computers connected by Arpanet, and “dark networks” soon arose. With the advent of the modern web in 1982, the problem of storing sensitive or illegal data arose.
With the internet already in place, cost reductions and advances in file compression lead to an explosion of activity on the dark web.
Programmer Ian Clarke launched Freenet in the 2000s, software that offers anonymous access to the darkest parts of the internet.
However, then the military department began to develop a network “for its own.” For a long time, only a limited circle of people knew about the existence of this network. Information about it first appeared when they announced the creation of The Onion Router (TOR) system. With it, many proxy servers established a confidential connection.
How to get into the dark web
To access the dark web, a special web browser is enough. You can use Tor Browser, which is the most popular web browser in this area. By the way, there are many alternatives to Tor Browser for accessing the dark web. Taking the Tor Browser as a sample, you need to do the following:
In a newly installed web browser, you will need to open it and click “Open settings” to change the relevant settings if, for example, the operator applies special restrictions or a connection through a proxy server is used. Then you just need to follow the guided setup process in the web browser and it will automatically open as if it were Google Chrome itself or any of its kind.
The Tor Browser is based on Firefox and can actually be used in the same way as the Mozilla Web Browser. That is, it helps to navigate the forbidden Internet without any problems. The next step is to get the .onion links corresponding to the web page you want to visit. But at the moment there is no search engine where everything is indexed the same way as on the surface web.
Alternatively, you can install Tor Browser for Android from the official Google Play Store. The process is similar to the desktop version. The Windows and Android versions are not the only ones as they offer macOS and Linux versions of the browser on their official website.
The Tor Browser is the simplest alternative for accessing the dark web, but it’s not the only one. Tools such as ZeroNet, Freenet, and I2P can be used, although these are generally recommended for more advanced users.
ZeroNet
As for ZeroNet, it is an open, free and uncensored network that uses the BitTorrent network. It is important to be clear that the content is distributed directly to other visitors without any central server and that everything works with .bit domains.
Freenet
Freenet is free software that allows you to anonymously share, view and publish pages of files, as well as chat and forget about censorship. This is a P2P or decentralized network that saw the world in 2000. All its nodes are encrypted. Users contribute to the network by providing bandwidth and a portion of their hard drive.
The Danger of the Dark Web
According to Alexander Khmyl, head of hosting provider HostFly.by, any network technology can work both for good and for danger.
The question is how people use technology. It is possible to talk about the danger of Darnet only with reference to human actions. The fact that the Internet is stratified into “white” and “black” only reflects the existing stratification of society, in which there is a place for both law-abiding citizens and those who do not see obstacles in the laws.
The darknet is a product of modern society, it has collected in itself something that cannot exist in the legislative field. For example, if society does not like pornography, it does not cease to exist, even if many laws are passed.
It occurs in another less accessible place – on special sites. Likewise, all other information services and services that are legally banned from the Internet are not annihilated when they meet with the law, but appear outside the field of view of legislators. Therefore, in the Darknet you will find all the vices and dangers that society is getting rid of. But they need to be able to seek and want to find.
Now it remains to think whether a person who is looking for something on the Darknet understands its danger or not. Most likely, people come to the Darknet purposefully or out of great curiosity. But no one gets there by accident by clicking on a link on a baby food banner. In the same way, there is traditional crime, which still has the magic to involve naive people.
But the Darknet requires clear requests, the desire to find something and the ability to search for the necessary information or service. To some extent, the Darknet is less dangerous, there are practically no random people in it. And the Darknet will always exist, it is written in the DNA of humanity, which is why we can expect that in the future there will be “black” social networks, gray messengers, and so on. Technologies serve a person and only he decides how they will be used.
According to Digital Security analyst Valery Gubarev, the darknet itself is not dangerous. The dark web contains resources that are not accessible through regular browsers and search engines. With the right tools, the dark web can be used to find items such as databases, company secrets, and offers to sell forged documents. All this is united by the illegality of what is happening.
Therefore, if your data ended up in some database that was leaked, then most likely it is being sold on the dark web among hundreds of other records. Therein lies the danger.
According to Nikita Smirnov, owner of Radio REDBOX, Darknet is the dark side of the Internet, where various dark things happen. Those who are on the dark web can buy whatever they want, even in the dark side you can order a murder.
There is an internal VPN service, but many experts say that your IP address can be used to buy drugs and other illegal substances. It seems to me that if you are interested in what is happening in this network, then it is better to think about it, maybe not?
Conclusion
There is illegal content on the dark web, among which you can find extreme videos with prohibited content, which will have an extremely negative impact on the psyche. Why is the darknet dangerous?
- The user will have access to compromising content.
- You can run into cybercriminals.
- It can fill your computer with viruses.
- The user may take part in illegal activities.
Access to this type of material can be very dangerous as these sites are controlled by the police. They track users who access this illegal content and are therefore accomplices in the crime, even if they come purely out of curiosity.
Another danger of the dark web is that you can meet criminals there: in just a few seconds after entering these sites, a hacker can quickly find and clear all accounts.
There are many risks involved when entering the darknet, so don’t do it even out of curiosity.
