Myth Busting: The Dark Web

While surfing the internet most of us may have come across some videos titled-

'Top10 horror clips from the dark web'

'I couldn't sleep after I saw this' or

'Caution!! Don't watch this if you have a weak heart'

 And you start thinking, " woo...Dark web! That must be a "wicked" thing!" 

But that's not the case at all! This is one of the myths that people don't usually talk about.

That's why today we are gonna be myth-busting the "Dark Web"

There are different layers on the internet. Such as Surface web, Deep Web, and Dark Web and the internet is highly comparable with an Iceberg as their greater portion stays hidden under the ocean. So as the internet!

The upper and the fibril part of the iceberg is referred to as the Surface Web.

What is Surface Web?

The part of the internet where all the pieces of information are accessible to anyone from anywhere in the world is called the surface web. You are not going to need any kind of username or password to get the information. Suppose you are searching for something on Google or you are browsing Wikipedia or Facebook then you are surfing on the surface web! This is what we call the World Wide Web aka www. And the domains used on the web addresses are .com, .net, .co, etc. So the Internet we use regularly is called the surface web.

The whole surface web or www occupies only 4% of the internet... the rest of them is called the deep web.

What is the deep web?

Suppose you have an account on google drive and you can access the data in your account by logging into it using the user name and the password. You log in and boom you are on the deep web! See it's not at all hard or wicked to access the deep web. It's that part of the internet where all the confidential databases of a company, private information like bank account numbers, transactions, personal information like a debit card or credit card or license or IDs, personal images are kept away from public access or cannot be found directly on your search engine. A user id and a password are required to access this deep web information. 90% of the whole Internet consists of the deep web. This is the layer where all the hackers mostly work and all the data trafficking, as well as Government surveillance, are being done. So your data is not safe or private at all as hackers or authority or your cloud service holders can steal your information anytime they want. Tech giants like Google, Facebook are the monsters in this case.

The Back Story

Well the deeper it is on the web the more confidential and shady things will become but still, that information can be accessed from any regular web browser like Chrome or Opera or UC browser, etc. And authorities or hackers can check out on the user, get their IP addresses, their location, or do whatever they want, and ultimately the privacy is compromised!

That has been happening since the beginning of the internet. No one could surf the web or say anything or share any information with privacy and security. So journalists couldn't change the paradigm without political interference or mental and physical patients couldn't talk about their problems that they were afraid to let others know, or government spies couldn't safely operate as all the calls and messages could be wiretapped.

Origin of the Dark Web

So forth darknet's journey began March 20, 2000, when Ian Clarke devised “a Distributed, Decentralised Information Storage and Retrieval System” for his thesis project during his perusal at the Edinburgh University.

He developed the concept of a peer-to-peer, decentralized network, designed to make it less vulnerable to attack and snooping by authorities and states that have been called the 'Freenet'.

It offered the freedom to communicate without the fear of being tracked online. It's still available and free to use.

TOR(The Onion Router)

There has always been a need for a network that facilitates a higher level of secure communications. This network allows for anonymous sources to be protected in hostile regimes.

That's why TOR was created on September 20, 2002, by computer scientists Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson. The most important and surprising thing is the whole project was funded by the US Naval Research Laboratory, which wished to facilitate safer communication with intelligence sources around the globe. 

Two years later in 2004, the Naval Research Laboratory released the code for TOR under a free license, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) began funding Dingledine, Mathewson, and others to continue its (TOR) development until they launched “The TOR Project”, a non-profit organization to help maintain the network.

The TOR Project is the most famous browser to surf the darknet hitherto. Just so you know, the darknet can't be accessed by your regular web browsers as the domain used in the darknet web addresses is .onion thoroughly unlike the .com, .org or .net, etc etc etc! 

So how does this TOR works?

Before we get to the answer let's clear a doubt. Why on earth would anyone name any domain as onion?

Well as you know an onion has its core covered with several layers of protection.

In an onion network, messages are encapsulated in leads of encryption, analogous to layers of an onion.

So basically TOR directs your IP address to the servers of different countries around the world encrypting and decrypting the information each time and creating several layers of protection by which you (the user) can go completely anonymous while browsing the dark web and free from government or other authorities surveillance.

So now you know what's the main purpose of the dark web'

As there is no unmixed good the basic amenity (to go anonymous and untracked on the dark web) has made it a lair for the criminals...

Illegal Things on The dark web

Type of crime with covert transactions, whether it involves drugs, money, or even human beings, can be committed on the Dark Web. The darkest corners of the internet are merely a platform for myriad offences, but here are some examples of Dark Web crimes:

Murder for Hire- The site Besa Mafia (and others like it) is a marketplace for contract killings.

Blackmail/Extortion - One scam involves threats of releasing compromising photos of affairs (even when no such photos exist) unless the victims pay a stated amount of bitcoin.

Illegal Drug Sales - Silk Road is the most highly publicized example, but there are others.

Illegal Arms Sales - Tens of thousands of dollars worth of guns are illegally sold each month on the Dark Web, according to estimates.

Sex Trafficking - In 2015, the New York County D.A.'s Office used an experimental internet search tool to catch and prosecute the leader of a sex trafficking ring.

Terrorism - ISIS and other terrorist groups use the Dark Web both for recruitment and planning attacks.

Child Pornography - An estimated 144,000 individuals in Britain alone were using the Dark Web to access child pornography in 2018.

Now have a glance at the dark websites...

1. The Hidden Wiki 

.onion link: http://zqktlwi4fecvo6ri.onion/

2. Dream Market (marketplace) 

.onion link: http://lchudifyeqm4ldjj.onion/

3.  The Hidden Wallet 

.onion link: http://nql7pv7k32nnqor2.onion/

4. Facebook

.onion link: http://www.facebookcorewwwi.onion/

5. Impreza Hosting (web hosting company) 

.onion link: http://.imperzawcjntsdf2.onion/

 6. Buy Bitcoins at Blockchain

.onion link: http://blockchainbdgpzk.onion/

7. Torch (search engine)

.onion link: http://xmh57jrzrnw6insl.onion/

8. ExpressVPN (premium VPN service) 

.onion link: http://expressobutiolem.onion/

9. Rent-A-Hacker

.onion link: http://2ogmrlfzdthnwkez.onion/

10. ProPublica (news portal)

 http://www.propub3r6espa33w.onion/

11. ESCROW Service (trading service)

.onion link: http://escrow3e7meryzm5.onion/

12. SecureDrop

.onion link: http://secrdrop5wyphb5x.onion/

13. Sci-Hub (open access allowance to tons of research paper)

 .onion link: http://scihub22266oqcxt.onion/

14. DuckDuckGo (search engine)

.onion link: https://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion/

How is it like on the dark web?

Well as you can see, the dark web addresses are not pretty much normal. Because the addresses are picked randomly. And the website quality is not even as good as other surface web links as there is no team of pro web developers working behind these service providers. So it's not that you can just search on your dark web search engine and you will get what you want. And most of the links you would see may not be active or even could be a scam! You know the reasons... Yes, anonymity! You will never know with whom you are making deals. There may be a punk on the other side of the screen who needs to buy gifts for his girlfriend and he's telling you that he can give you 99% pure cocaine just to deflect your money. And the most important thing is to know that most of the prominent websites have already been shut down by the authorities. And you might see something like this...

Let's give you an example...in October 2013 the FBI shut down the dark web eBay known as the Silk Road (where you could buy anything and everything) seizing more than 1Billion worth of Bitcoins. 

Ok now suppose you found something real, now all the deals will be made by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litcoin, etc. As they are hard to track down but not impossible though.

Let's talk about the risks.

As you don't know whom you are dealing with... FBI and other investigating organizations play decoy. So you could get caught even if you haven't made any kind of purchase and if you have just visited any illegal site out of curiosity! Because of the technical security breaches of the user in the whole TOR process. 

Ok, let's explain this... As we know in onion routing every request to reach any information is re-routed to the servers of several countries (encrypting and decrypting each time) using TOR's VPN. But the 1st station knows where the request is coming from and the last station knows where it's going! So if anyone put hackers in this two station you could be tracked.

How to play safe?

1. Use an extra VPN. So that anyone (trying to know the user's location) will find the requests in the 1st station encrypted and the request will be routed to other servers before going to the 1st station.

2. Use a mask. This will protect you from getting caught even if your Ip address is been tracked.

3. Don't use the full screen of your dark web browser. This makes things easier for the hackers.

4. And most importantly it's better if you keep away from this whole dark web thing. Why taking risks just to meet your curiosity.

In this article, I have tried to talk about everything regarding the Dark Web. But I haven't given any link or screenshot of the horrific and disturbing video services. FYI, most of them are staged. And most of the active links have been shut down. These service holders create a  room where live streams are available. You just gotta pay a fraction of a bitcoin and you will have the access to those streams and live chats... Even you can ask to do things on the streams!

Well...haha! you know people ask for many things...as you can imagine. So these streams become pretty disturbing and odds are, you could get caught by authority or you could lose your money in a scam.

This is an article for educational and awareness-making purposes only! Don't abuse this beautiful piece of technology which gives you the full freedom of speech and privacy anyone could ask for. The dark web is not just about illegal and ill-tempered acts it serves a greater purpose. And that's why it can't be shut down, where the US government is funding the TOR project at an ascending rate. If one site goes down another will take its place. When Silk Road was taken down in October 2013 Silk Road 2.0 came online within just 1 month!

Share this blog with your friend if you think that's worth a try!

On that note let's wrap it for today! Stay inside! Stay safe!