Dark Web

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The term "dark web" does not have one specific defined meaning. The term has been used to describe different things over the course of the existence of the modern Internet. The term is mostly used for marketing hype. Companies attempting to sell you Internet security software, identity theft protection services, or financial monitoring tend to use the term "dark web" in an ominously ambiguous place on the Internet or separate from the World Wide Web where all the criminals hang out like the worst part of a major city.

The dark web misnomer is predominant in popular culture and media.

The term dark web is not synonymous with deep web.

What is the Dark Web

  • The installation of Fiber Optic cable to be used for communications or Internet traffic that was never activated due to factors including lack of funding and owning entity financial bankruptcy. Fiber optic cable uses light rather than an electrical current to transmit information. If the cable is not used, there is no light, and therefore the cable can be observed as being dark (or without light.)
  • Specifically restricted areas of the Internet used by criminals for illegal activity, such activity being on the spectrum from copyright infringement through to intellectual property distribution, personal identify information and other more serious criminal activity. Again, these are sites on the public Internet that cannot be searched and indexed by search engines such as Google due to blocking technology.

What the Dark Web Isn't

  • The Dark Web is not a standardized definition for a specific thing. It is more of a marketing term used by non-technical people in an attempt to sell and profit from privacy or identity theft products and services. It has gained partial acceptance in the information technology world loosely describing some bad parts of the Internet.
  • The Dark Web is not a separate Internet. It is not a separate World Wide Web.
  • The Dark Web is not entirely and specifically all illegal activity, at least not activity that is illegal in all countries. For example, anti-government political dissidence that is illegal in the movement country of origin might be protected speech in other places such as the United States. Maybe a resistance movement in North Korea might secretly use the Internet anonymously to organize, if they had computers, technology, and electricity.
  • The Dark Web can contain horrifying images and information such as the so called "Snuff Films," however, this is stuff that exists places on the Internet, and calling it the dark web is not saying that it is on a different place than the Internet. It is on the Internet, but you won't find this disturbing content easily or by using a major search engine such as Google. Again, the dark web is not separate from the Internet or World Wide Web.
  • The Dark Web is not a term for describing pornographic content web sites. Because something has opposition or moral implications does not make it part of the dark web. Legal age restricted pornography is all over the public Internet. However, illegal pornographic material, prostitution services, and even darker sex trafficking meets what has come to be described as part of the dark web.
  • Web sites with bgcolor=#000000 in the BODY tag may be dark while existing on the web, however, this is not relevant to the popular term and only included here as "light" humor.

Deep Web and Dark Web

  • Deep Web != Dark Web (they are not synonyms)
  • Deep is not necessarily dark, however, dark is almost certainly deep

The deep web is a term to describe all of the Internet connected networks, web sites, and services which are not indexed by major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. They may not be known to exist simply because the Internet is so extremely large that not everything gets found and indexed. There is far more content online than that which is commonly known. Search engines only index and search common Internet protocols such as http which makes up the World Wide Web.

In other words, you have to "dig deeper" to find the deep web.

Furthermore, there are Internet connected networks which have restricted access blocking Internet search engines and indexing services. Public access to an Internet connected network or web site may be completely blocked by encryption, authentication mechanisms, and firewall technology. In this case you have to dig deeper by receiving a password from someone, being granted access or discovering a hidden way in.

The Internet is made up of many connected networks. That's basically what it is, many connected networks. They're connected together using standardized routing and addressing protocols and hardware technology to accomplish a common goal, a global interoperability system. Web sites are driven by web servers on networked computers in which the network itself is connected to the Internet. Services are accessed by computers and smart devices all participating in some kind of network that is Internet connected. The World Wide Web is not the same thing as the Internet, but merely one of the many technologies that uses the Internet. Your computer and smart phone are merely two examples of any of the countless network or Internet connected devices.

Restricted networks that cannot be directly searched and indexed by major search engines such as Google but have legitimate or legal content in addition to the many unknown public networks not yet discovered by indexing services comprise the majority of the deep web. Many of the restricted places are used by companies to share information with satellite locations, business partners, subscription based users, or other selective audiences. The rest are just undiscovered Internet networks and obscure web sites or Internet servers that have poor or limited connectivity.

The minority of deep web networks that contain illegally distributed intellectual property, copyright media, the sharing of evidence of criminal activity, illegally obtained personal identify information, banned or restricted media, and information on buying or selling illegal material exist and makes up much of what is now commonly being described as the dark web.

Finding the dark web and accessing the content is difficult because these places are hidden and the front door locked. Access is restricted by the criminals and those aiding and abetting criminals when they create and allow it on their networks. They restrict access in an effort to avoid capture and criminal prosecution. Imagine social networking, business-to-business, and e-commerce all for anything illegal where the buyers, sellers, and everyone else is up to their necks in it, and they want to all hook up online without getting caught and you have the dark web.

Criminal elements active on the dark web typically share information on web sites and other Internet mediums not indexed by Google. These criminals wish to be anonymous but still able to make connections to transact business. An identity thief may steal your social security number and sell it on the dark web to a buyer that intends on using it for criminal activity. Thieves and drug dealers wish to be found by their customers without being found by the police. This is of course impossible so therefore a real "dark web" that only the bad guys can use doesn't exist. The dark web can be discovered and the crooks have no guarantee they'll be able to freely roam the dark web without consequences.

  • The general public doesn't know how to find the dark web and therefore does not use it
  • The tricks and knowledge to find destinations on the dark web is known only to those criminals using it, law enforcement investigating the criminals using it, and the technically savvy overly curious seeking to understand, and sometimes expose it.

The very nature of the dark web does limit its proliferation. Consumers of illegal material will not find destinations on the dark web as user friendly as eBay and Craigslist. There are no money back guarantees or limited warranties from the dark web marketplaces. The dark web is a modern age black market. If a specific market becomes too popular on the dark web then that person becomes a victim of his or her own popularity as exposure becomes likely. As long as law enforcement continues to aggressively go after the criminals, the dark web will be a confined place well off the beaten path. Regrettably, much like the "War on Drugs" there is no victory involving elimination of the dark web.

Swimming in the depths of the dark web, even just out of curiosity, can get you on a government watch list. The US government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been working on tools to automatically monitor the dark web and identify individuals. It isn't just a matter of knowing how to access things on the dark web, but how to anonymously access the dark web so one does not become the victim of crime or subject of investigation just for being curious and poking around a bit.

Dark Web Illustration

Illustration of a simple example might be made by describing an online forum. There are many online forums that people can register and join in order to post questions or provide information on topics. Typical forums can be read without registration. However, an online forum that cannot be read or otherwise accessed without registration would be deeper than a typical public forum. If the forum operator does not provide any public registration mechanism then it would be yet deeper. If a group of criminals used this forum to communicate about their criminal activity and only provided login access to one another then it would be very deep, and perhaps part of the so called dark web.

A small group of criminals with their own online forum which is secure enough to resist being hacked and compromised may continue to have success in facilitating their illegal activity as long as no single member of the criminal group "rolls over" and becomes an informant. Law enforcement invasion into this example dark web forum could only be achieved by obtaining access by (A) intimidation of one of the criminal users, (B) forcibly breaking into the forum using cracking techniques that exploit a security flaw in the forum, or (C) ordinary carelessness of one of the forum participants exposing information necessary to achieve access (via A or B) relating to police cooperation or cracking the server.

Although a real and practical example it should be noted that a web based Internet message forum with restricted access is not a common component of the dark web. The more serious the criminal activity the more obscure the technology or medium being used to communicate or transact business the criminals will utilize. Lesser known or newly developed communication protocols might be used. The strongest forms of encryption will likely be implemented. Access based on your physical location might be incorporated so that even with the correct username and password, unless you are on a specific machine in a specific place you're still locked out.

The dark web can get so dark it is without metaphoric light, and the content might dwell in the depths of the unimaginable. With great effort trying to find your way onto the dark web and stumbling into the wrong area might expose you to risk such as those associated with what you found coming after you and your family. There are things online that are so dark and disturbing that it can change your very outlook on life. However, this is the reality of the Internet and whether you refer a specific area of the Internet with the pop culture term "dark web" or not, the fact is that the Internet contains everything from the extreme good to most deplorable bad. Fortunately for you the extremely dangerous is very deep and obscure so that you're not going to accidentally take a wrong turn winding up on the run from a mob hitman and the FBI because you mistyped one letter doing an Internet search. Life is not a Doug Liman movie and the dark web is just a small sliver of the Internet that you'll probably never even come near. Reading about the dark web is positively the closet the average person will ever want to get to that part of the Internet that popular culture has dubbed with such a mysterious and dubiously intriguing nick name.

Your Data is For Sale

There is a black market for your personal information, including your Social Security Number and your Credit Card numbers. Those to whom broker in your private information are able to collaborate online and barter with one another buying and selling this data, often utilizing bitcoin or data itself as the currency. DUM-DUM-DOOM

Online resources that either help you identify to what degree your private information and authentication credentials have been exposed or that are actively facilitating the propagation of your data may include the following:

"He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf"

  • IMPORTANT TIP: Do NOT enter anything into any of these web sites or any other so-called-security web sites that you would not also share publicly with the world. Be careful what you search for because you might be neglecting the front door whilst checking to ensure the back door is locked.

Social Media Chatter Suggests--- DeHashed is the largest & fastest data breach search engine; Leaksify is the best known site for checking if your email address, website, username or any account associated; GhostProject.fr is a Fatest Free Database Lookup of Recent 1.4 billion passwords; NuclearLeaks;

Other related terms: White Hat, Ethical Hacker, Black Hat, MalwareMustDie,

Nothing is Secure! Even this page may have been hacked and details altered to trick you into doing something foolish by someone with nefarious intent. Always trust the voices in your head over the words on your screen! Don't accept wooden nickels! May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?

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