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.
What is the Dark Web
- The installation of Fiber Optic cable to be used for 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 or rf to transmit data. If the cable is not used, there is no light, and therefore the cable can be observed as being dark (or without light.)
- Internet resources that cannot be searched and indexed by Internet search engines such as Google due to factors including the requirement of authentication credentials, private network routing, or firewalls blocking indexing. More correctly this condition should be referred to as "Deep Web" rather than Dark Web.
- Specifically restricted areas of the Internet sometimes used 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 one specific logical thing. It is more of a marketing term used by non-technical people in an attempt to sell and market privacy services or identity theft services.
- 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. There is legitimate and legal information on the so called dark web that is simply not indexed by the major search engines for one or more reasons.
- The Dark Web can contain horrifying images and information such as the so called "Snuff Films," however, this is stuff that exists 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.
Deep Web and Dark Web
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. There is far more content online than that which is known and indexed by the major search engines. 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 getting a password from someone or being granted access.
There are reasons that Internet connected networks are not searched and indexed by major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Direct access to these networks may be purposely restricted by the owners. To consider why these networks may have restricted access requires understanding the the Internet actually is.
The Internet is made up of many connected networks and nothing else. All of the many networks connected together using standardized routing and addressing technology make up the Internet. Web sites are driven by web servers on networked computers in which the network itself is connected to the Internet. The World Wide Web is not the same thing as the Internet, but merely one of the many technologies that uses the Internet.
Not all networks are connected to the Internet. The ones that are not connected are called "private" networks. Those that are connected to the Internet with some degree of unrestricted access are considered "public" networks. Companies may with to have the advantages of having their network connected to the Internet, with restrictions for security purposes. If an Internet connected network cannot be accessed at all by the general public without applying authentication tokens of a type that prevents automatic indexing then this network is considered to be at a "deeper" layer than typical public networks on the Internet. This has become known as the "deep" web.
Consider restricted networks on the deep web that cannot be automatically searched and indexed by major search engines such as Google but have legitimate or legal content as the majority of the deep web. Much of these networks are used by companies to share information on a restricted basis with satellite locations, company partners, subscription based users, or other restricted audiences.
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 may be the contemporary more common use of the term "dark web." Access is restricted to these places making up the dark web by the perpetrators in an effort to avoid capture and criminal prosecution.
An individual that wants to sell something that is against the law to sell, yet find a market, is challenged to advertise in a way that will not result in capture and prosecution. The goal of these criminal elements is to share information on web sites and other Internet mediums which are not indexed by Google and the major search engines. These criminals wish to be anonymous but still able to make connections to transact business. They 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. In this context the dark web is simply a place common people tend not to be able to find, and crooks tend to use to conduct illegal activity, but is still part of the overall Internet.
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. 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 did 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.