The World Wide Web (WWW), just like real life, is so huge that it would take you a lifetime to get through every nook and cranny. To compound that fact, by the time you were halfway there, so much more content would have been created and updated that you’d have to start over.

All this is well known, but how many of you know that the content that is normally found on the web is just the tip of a huge iceberg of information?

The hidden internet

Imagine a real iceberg: the top sticks out of the water and is visible, but the actual mass of the iceberg is below, invisible.

The WWW is similar, in that the usual sites we visit are the top of that iceberg. This includes common sites like Wikipedia, Google, and even the millions of blogs that come and go on a daily basis.

Beneath the water lurks deep and dark, hidden from view for various reasons, the Dark web.

Less dire is the information that skims the surface of the Dark Web, in an area called the Deep Web. That belongs to large corporations or governments and is never exposed to the public, such as medical records, government reports, financial records, etc. These are kept away from search engines and behind powerful firewalls to protect them.

It’s really in the depths of the Dark Web that things get murkier and often dangerous.

The Deep Web vs. the Dark Web

In the case of the Deep Web, since personal records, government documents and such are not intended for public view in the first place, it is understandable that they are kept safe. However, they are still mostly connected to the Internet, as much of that information forms an ecosystem for many surface web applications.

The Dark Web is a bit more complicated. This part of the WWW often runs on private server networks, allowing communication only through specific means. This allows for a high degree of anonymity and makes it difficult for authorities to shut down.

Unfortunately, this has led to the Dark Web becoming a place where many illegal or immoral activities take place.

What is hidden on the dark web?

If you’ve ever heard of cybercrime, you probably know that today’s cybercriminals are after more than just money. They literally take anything of value, which means credit card information, personal information, and more. All of these things are commodities on the Dark Web, to be bought, sold, or traded.

Apart from that, there are also illegal business dealings that cannot be carried out on the web surface. Just about anything can be bought on the Dark Web as long as you’re willing to pay. Available items include firearms, illegal drugs, illegal wildlife, or even services like hiring a hit man.

Finally, there is the most vicious and undesirable of all: those who deal in the sickest and most perverse types of porn, which is illegal in almost every part of the world.

How to access dark websites

Tor Browser

Despite its current use as a browser often used to access parts of the dark web links, TOR (also known as the Dark Web Browser) was originally developed to help safeguard online communications from US Intelligence. .

Today, it is one of the few ways to access .onion websites, which are found on the Dark Web.

TOR is a variant of the popular Firefox web browser, modified to allow users to browse the web anonymously. The browser is designed to block or warn against user attempts to do things that might reveal their identity, such as resizing the dimensions of the browser window, for example.

While you’re waiting for TOR to download, take the time to stick a piece of dark tape over your webcam lens. You never know what can happen.

And also, check out the following TOR introduction video.

Consider paying for a VPN

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are services that offer secure servers that allow private access to the web. These servers mask their origin and can emulate locations from many other places in the world. Data passing through VPN tunnels is also encrypted.

Although TOR masks your identity, it does not hide your location.

Dive into the Dark Web

.onion is a domain used exclusively on the Dark Web. These are similar to regular domains, but cannot be accessed without a specialized browser like TOR.

Here are a couple of relatively harmless .onion addresses to try:

• Hidden wiki
• Dark Web Facebook
• Duck Duck Go