Because all you have to do is obtain their IP address, you may learn as much information as you desire about their online activities. On the dark web, sophisticated techniques are employed to disguise a user’s actual IP address, making it challenging to identify the sites that a device has visited. Open web or surface web is the publicly visible part of the internet that most people use daily, and it can be accessed through search engines like Google or Bing. Due to its distinct registry operator, it is inaccessible by conventional browsers. Furthermore, it is concealed by several network security measures, including firewalls and encryption. Virtual private networks hide your real internet address in the event an attacker gains control of your VM.
Download Tor from their official website to make sure you don’t install a scam version. Normal sites on the deep net sit behind secure logins, paywalls, passwords, and authentication forms, but you don’t need any special software. By contrast, to access dark web websites, you need special tools or software like Tor Browser. The surface web makes up only about 10% of the entire internet, and includes anything you can find by entering terms into a search engine like Google. All the websites you visit that don’t require login credentials are part of the surface web.
Using Tor Browser
The dark web, or black web, on the other hand, is the “unsavory” part of the deep web. Access to the dark web is only possible with specific browsers, such as Tor, because most platforms establish an anonymous connection and mask IP addresses. As you surf, you’ll probably notice that dark website addresses end with the .onion extension rather than the traditional .com, .org, .edu, etc.
Here are some risks of accessing the dark web without taking proper safety measures. We can show you how to get on the dark web, but it’s important you stay safe all throughout. The dark web is more dangerous than the surface web, or the clear web, whatever you prefer to call it. As is obvious, if you engage in illicit or illegal activity on the dark web, then those acts will be considered illegal and could land you in legal trouble.
March’s Top VPN Discounts
Sign up for a credit or identity theft monitoring service, thoroughly check your credit card statements and carefully investigate any unknown or unrecognized activity. The dark web is a network of hidden websites and other services that require specialized software to access. Much of the material found on the dark web is encrypted or otherwise protected. None of it is visible without access to Tor, a specialized browser and software that ensures anonymity by hiding the user’s location and IP address. You can quickly identify suspicious activities by closely monitoring your credit report and online accounts.
- You can’t access the dark web without the use of an anonymous browser known as Tor.
- When you access the dark web, you want to avoid any problem (hacking, data stealth…) so you have to get the right tools.
- However, many schools also have an intranet — sometimes linked from the main university page — that’s accessible only for students or staff.
- That said, while it’s not illegal to browse the dark web, it’s also not completely void of criminal activity.
- For speed and security, we recommend our sponsor ExpressVPN.
Whistleblowers often come to the dark web to find allies who can take their secrets and share them more publicly elsewhere. Knowing what types of exploits are being performed on one’s organization allows leaders to plan damage control before something happens. For example, a company can search the dark web to see if any of its internal IP addresses, usernames, and passwords have been posted. If a data breach happens, it is better to be aware of it and be proactive before it goes public. It’s almost always stuff you don’t want to expose yourself to. This includes snuff films, child pornography, hitmen for hire, hackers, and much worse.
How to Access Dark Web Safely?
Having the tools to expose dark web dangers and defend against them is a crucial asset for any company or government agency. Government agencies and contractors can employ services like Peraton’s TORNADO to frequently check the dark web to understand if people are talking about them and what they are saying. TORNADO automatically and anonymously combs through the entire dark web every 30 days based on specific keywords that help identify information that may pose potential harm. Exploiting open source intelligence provides situational awareness.
The most common browsers used to access these areas are Tor , Freenet and I2P. Though many people are curious about the content on these sites, just a single visit to one of these sites may place you on an FBI watchlist, so proceed with caution. Tor Browser is the most popular dark web browser because it directs your browser traffic through the Tor network to access the darknet. Your data is encrypted and bounced between at least three relay points, known as nodes, during its passage through Tor. Because of this, the Tor Browser will have slow browsing than a standard web browser. Tor is the best browser to preserve your anonymity and safety while browsing the internet, especially the dark web.
Onion Link
If you’ve tested some the stuff in this article out, by now you’ve probably realized that what I’ve given you is a highly sanitized version of what’s really available on the Dark Web. Seriously, some of the things are so illegal that I won’t even type them out here. The logic is like the above, to avoid Virus and Malware, but please watch what you download on the dark web. Remember, malicious code can be embedded in almost any file type and you won’t know until it’s too late. If you must, use a virtual machine to do so, as this will isolate the file form the rest of your OS.
Be extra vigilant with email and social media
For all the illegal activity and secrecy that takes place on Tor, you may be surprised to learn its origin story. Tor was developed—and continues to be partially funded by—the US government. This is because most of the sites in Darknet are criminal in nature. Scripts created using JavaScript can be dangerous if they manage to store something on your computer and hackers might use them to do just that.
