The Dark Web is a scary place filled with credit card information and personal details that are openly traded. It is also home to sites that offer hacking services and firearms. To access these sites, you need a special browser that encrypts your connection called Tor. This article will give you a step-by-step guide to exploring the dark side of the internet safely.
What Is The Dark Web?
The Dark Web is a hidden part of the internet that requires special software to access. It’s used by hackers and cybercriminals to buy and sell illegal goods and services, such as drugs, weapons, and stolen credit card information. It’s also used to share hacking tools, such as malware and phishing kits. The dark web is difficult to navigate because of its lawless reputation. It’s not uncommon for files downloaded from the dark web to contain viruses, spyware, or ransomware that can steal your personal information or money. It’s important to use a VPN and to install anti-virus software that offers real-time file scanning.
The Dark Web is also home to many social media and news sites that offer a way for people to avoid government monitoring. For example, Facebook has a dark web version that lets people access the site in countries where it is blocked. This can be especially useful for journalists and whistleblowers who want to stay anonymous when revealing information that exposes abuses of power.
Search Engines
If the surface web is like a fish and search engines are the fishing boats, then the dark web is the underwater portion of the Internet, accounting for 90 percent of the entire World Wide Web. Deep Web content is hidden from surface web searches and can be accessed via credentials such as passwords or a special URL. The most common and effective way to find these sites is by using dedicated dark web search engines. Examples include Grams, The Hidden Wiki, and Onion Links. Each one of these websites hosts a list of working Dark Web Sites and categorizes them for easier browsing.
Another helpful resource is Ahmia, which helps users on the Tor anonymity network discover a variety of different dark web websites. It also has a built-in feature that lets you know if a specific site is online or not. Its worth noting that many of these websites go up and down, sometimes within days.
Scam Sites
While the dark web offers privacy and anonymity, it’s also a breeding ground for fraud. Scam websites often lure unsuspecting customers into revealing personal information or device vulnerabilities. They may even sell services that aren’t legitimate, such as access to professional hitmen. The dark web can host fake online stores that offer too-good-to-be-true deals on popular brands of clothing, jewelry and electronics, or sell illegal drugs. Other sites promote arms sales to terrorists and other non-state actors. They can also serve as a forum for hate speech, such as that of neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
Scammers use different methods to attract potential victims, including typosquatting (registering misspelled domain names) and combosquatting (combining common words with the brand name). They also make their sites look authentic by offering a wide range of payment methods, from cryptocurrency to money orders and pre-loaded credit cards. Other warning signs include poor design and grammatical errors. Also, avoid clicking on links with shortened URLs and watch out for pixelated images or graphics.
Online Shops
Despite its reputation as a cesspool for drug dealers, black-hat hackers, hitmen and other bad guys, the dark web is home to many online stores. These commerce sites can sell anything from dangerous chemicals and weapons to stolen credit card information and medical records. Most are run on a peer-to-peer basis and operate like an e-commerce site, with shopping carts, customer ratings/reviews and payment methods like bitcoin. But with both buyers and sellers anonymous, quality control is challenging. Commerce sites have been known to disappear and flee with escrow payments.
Other sites are more benign, with forums and chat rooms that can connect you with strangers for scintillating conversations. Some have a more political bent, with a dark web version of Wikileaks and several whistleblower sites. There are even a few news outlets, such as Reuters, Fox and NBC, that have a dark web presence to allow their journalists and readers to be shielded from government surveillance.
Conclusion
Dark Web Sites are websites that aren’t indexed by regular search engines. You need a special browser to access them, such as Tor (The Onion Router). The anonymity of the dark web can be helpful for people who want to protect their privacy and freedom of speech online. But it also enables criminal activity like arms trafficking and sexually exploitative content.
