What Is Dark Web? Is anything like this really exist? The internet has made our lives so much easier, right? If you want to order food then you can order food in one click. If you want to watch a movie, you can watch the movie in one click, and if you don’t like the movie you can go to Twitter and in one click, write Boycott Bollywood. But what if I tell you that we can access only 5% of the internet and the remaining 95% is hidden from us? People go here and order drugs as easily as you order food just like you can watch a movie. People can watch someone being tortured. They can even hire hackers to hack someone’s bank account. I am talking about the dark web. All these things sound like a thriller movie, but this is the truth of today’s digital world.
I know you must be very curious, but please understand that accessing the dark web is unsafe for you and me, so please don’t try this. but this information is important for you to read because scams have increased a lot these days and if you are aware of how scams happen, then you can be careful with your data and information.
What is Internet ? The 3 levels of the Internet.
We can divide the internet into 3 categories.
- Surface Web
- Deep Web
- Dark Web
Surface web a simple meaning
Imagine that internet is like an ocean, where the boats float is the surface, where the divers go is the deep web and below that where sunlight, and below that where sunlight does not reach is the dark web. The internet we use today is called surface web. Before any website, we type www i.e. World Wide Web. This is the surface web where you have Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, everything you need. Whatever is on the surface web is indexed on Google, which means it is very easy for you to access when you search. The surface web has information indexed for the public to find. Here if you want basic information about someone then you can get it with a simple Google search, but you will not get their bank account, or their PAN number, or their blood group, or which memes they share with their best friend. The search engine works as a librarian for you. When you go to the library and ask for a book from the librarian, the librarian searches the entire library and gives you that particular book. This is basically what search engines do.
Deep web a simple meaning
If a child goes to the librarian and asks for an adult book, the librarian will not give them that book, right? Search engines similarly filter information for us. Basically, no matter how famous a person is, no website makes their personal data available to you. It is reserved only for them. This part of the Internet is hidden behind a password. For example, if they want to know how much money is in their bank account, then they have to sign in to their net banking. This information is password-protected. That means the deep web is all that content that search engines hide from you, which is not publicly available to people. A simple way to understand this is your email or your DMs. Only you know which meme your friend has sent you, Instagram knows and your friend knows, no matter how much someone else searches, Instagram still does not tell them this information. Instagram hides this information to protect you. This is the deep web. Information not indexed for the public. This deep web constitutes 94% of the entire internet.
What is dark web ?
A librarian has all the data available about which person has borrowed which book, and when they returned it. But it does not share this data with you because this data is private, and basically, you do not need this data that is the deep web. But the next part of the internet is hidden from you and that is the dark web. If we have to access the dark web, then we have to cross another layer of protection and enter the dark web. No link from the dark web will open directly on your mobile. You will need a special browser. The dark web is a very small part of the internet, maybe only one percent, but in this one percent some things are not good for you and me about which we will know further.
How did the dark web arise?
First of all, let’s understand that the dark web is not a hell where the devil lives. Instead, it is Batman’s Gotham City where the rules are different from the rest of the world, where there is no censorship. The dark web is that part of the internet where you will find everything, good and bad, ethical and unethical, legal and illegal. What is the need for the dark web? Well, because of surveillance. The use case of the dark web is that it hides your identity and your location, which makes it difficult for anyone to track you. Just as you and I use the internet for communication, similarly governments also use the internet for different things. If they used the surface web for communication, then anyone could intercept it and get intelligence information. This information may be misused. In the 1990s, when the Cold War was ending, American scientists tried to solve this problem with onion routing.
What is onion routing ?
Basically, like an onion has layers, information is also protected by different layers. Look at data as a package. If you write your message on a postcard, the postman can read it, so what do you do? You put it in an envelope. But if the envelope is also held against a light, then what is inside can be read. So to increase protection you use a double envelope.
Usually, when we order online and the value of the order is very large, we receive an OTP. We get the package only after submitting this OTP. So what we do is we introduce an additional layer of security. Online routing works similarly. When data is passed through this method, only the sender and receiver can know what is inside. This is the base of the dark web. If you have searched about the dark web before, then you would know that to access the dark web, you need a special browser called Tor. TOR is named after this onion-routing technique. TOR(The Onion Router).
Just as our usual links end with .com or .org, similarly the links of the dark web end with .onion. You cannot open this with your normal browser. For this, you will need TOR. Criminals often do illegal things on the dark web, and they cannot take payment for illegal things through credit cards because all the credit card data is tracked. That is why cryptocurrency is used for this. A cryptocurrency called Monero was the dark web favourite. There was a website named Silk Road which was operational only from 2011 to 2013. The FBI shut it down in 2013. But in just these 2 years, they made a revenue of 9.5 million bitcoins! Of course, this is from 2013, the Bitcoin of that time was not the Bitcoin of today. But still, in just 2 years this amount is huge. Silk Road was closed but many more websites like it started being created. Silk Road 2.0 and then Silk Road 3.0 and so on and so forth.
Use of dark web ?
When you hear about a data breach, your data is being sold somewhere. Where is it sold? People steal and sell credit card information Where? On the dark web. Here, organs are sold illegally, kidnapping takes place, and child pornography takes place. In total, 2000 to 10000 different types of websites exist on the dark web which do shady things of different levels. But the dark web is not just negative. Many news organizations use the dark web. In countries where there is no free speech, where people’s phones are always being tapped, if the sources there have to convey any information to the media, then how will they do it? Through the dark web.
Stay away from the dark web. Well, I found many such articles on the surface web i.e. regular internet on how you can access the dark web easily, but did not find anything on net explaining why to stay away from it. Let us understand.
We should use or not dark web ?
Your IP address is your online identity. Whenever you are using any website, you can be traced with the help of your IP address. Your IP address leaves a footprint that allows government agencies to track you. But the TOR browser erases your traces so it will be difficult to track you. Suppose you are sitting on a computer from Delhi and you are accessing a website from New York, then instead of connecting you directly from Delhi to New York, TOR connects you there through a long route. TOR uses relays to send your signal from Delhi to Japan, then to Africa, then to Russia, and finally from Russia to New York. There are more than 7000 such relay points in the TOR network. But this anonymity of the dark web also gives scammers a big platform.
Let us understand through an example. Suppose you have placed an order on Amazon and made the payment, and you have not received the order, then you talk to the customer service of Amazon, and if things are not handled then you can also file a police complaint. But if you place an order for something illegal on the dark web, and those websites are operated by scammers, then what will happen? Today 99% of the dark web is this. It is full of scammers who lure people with drugs for very little money, then take their money, and do not deliver. They know that neither they can be tracked nor that anyone will complain against them. People often go to the dark web for privacy, but because of the dark web your privacy can get leaked.
As you understood, links on the dark web do not open on your normal browser. But if you have a dark web browser on your phone or laptop, and you accidentally click a link, then you can become a victim of a big scam. You see, it is not illegal to visit the dark web, but it is illegal to place wrong orders by visiting the wrong website on the dark web. There are things on the dark web that can leave a deep psychological impact on you. Like Red Rooms, where people upload videos of themselves torturing others. It is better to stay away from all these things.
Conclusion
because internet is a part of our life. I hope that after reading this article your curiosity might have reduced a bit. You won’t feel the need to go to the dark web and search for something. The purpose of this Article is to warn you, especially the teenagers. the dark web can be dangerous, and conveying this important thing to you matters to me.
