With the recent shutdown of the notorious Silk Road on the
web, a lot more people have known about the deep web and the dark web than it was the case before. The closing of the web drug
portal has led to a number of people trying to know how it was operating and
how it was well hidden on the internet.
The internet is a very intriguing place. For once, it goes
way deeper than one can imagine. At the last count, it comprised of over 600
million active websites that you can access easily via your devices. However,
these websites form only the tip of iceberg that is the web. These websites are
only those websites which are indexed by the search engines. What about those
websites which aren’t indexed? They form the base of the deep web which is way
bigger than what you can access nowadays.
Since most people haven’t heard of these terms – deep web and
dark web before, they often get confuse between them and use them
interchangeably. While dark web forms a smaller part of the deep web, these two
are completely different identities on their own. Let us go and find out more
about these two in detail below.
The Deep Web
All those deep web sites,
databases, files and more which are not accessible by search engines such as
Bing and Google form the part of the Deep web. Since these are not indexed by
the search engines, they don’t appear on the web browser when you search for
them. This is why a normal user doesn’t know about them.
However, knowingly or unknowingly, everyone has accessed the
deep web once in their lifetime and probably do so on a regular basis daily.
Let me tell you how. Your online transactions, messages you send on Twitter or
Instagram, your emails, bank databases, hospital records – all these things are
hidden or protected when you search for them but you can still access them if
you have the authority. Such types of files and databases form the basis of the
deep web.
The Deep web accounts for about 90% of the total web space
and is usually made up of statistics and databases from government agencies and
more. The Deep web is available for a reason and unlike what others say;
browsing the deep web is perfectly legal and is very far away from illicit
activity.
The Darker Part of the Internet
Now comes
the part which is actually the place where a number of illicit activities take
place on the internet. The Dark Web is not a separate entity on the web but
forms a small, darker section of the deep web. However, unlike deep web, it is
not accessible via your regular web browsers. You will need special Onion web
browsers which will help you access the content on the dark web.
The next
question arises – what is on the dark web? Mostly, the dark web consists of
multiple websites which act as a marketplace for selling illegal products
including drugs, weapons and hacked online credentials such as Bank details,
credit/debit card details. Additionally, you can hire the services of assassins
and killers on the dark web while you can easily get a number of hackers here
who can practically hack into almost all websites across the world. With a
number of such illicit activities taking place on the dark web, this area of
the net is also known as the underbelly of the internet.
Another
popular reason why dark web is famous is because a number of internet activists
and journalists make use of this platform to remain hidden and anonymous to
gather and provide information against corruption and other malpractices
undertaken by the Government in the power. This allows such people to go around
the censorship issues prevailing in the country and ensure that the truth
reaches the public eyes at all cost.
One thing
you should always keep in mind if you go browsing on the dark web is that while
it is not illegal to access the dark web, you can find a number of websites on
the dark web which offers illegal services. If found accessing them, you can
find yourself in a lot of trouble.
The
Final Say
The
internet runs very deep into the darker side as you go deeper and deeper. While
you can find a number of websites partaking in illegal activities on the dark
web, you will also come across some of the very popular websites such as
Facebook and more which don’t have anything illegal going on there.
Not
everything on the internet is all bad in its essence. People even use the dark
web to provide the truth as in case of whistleblowers. It all depends upon how
a person chooses to use the web services to his needs.
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