The Dark Web Explained
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VOICE OVER: Phoebe de Jeu
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
Ever since the internet became an unavoidable fact of life, concerns about what it might be used for have been everywhere. And there's one place where all of these fears can be realized: the dark web. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at what the dark web is.
Ever since the internet became an unavoidable fact of life, concerns about what it might be used for have been everywhere. And there’s one place where all of these fears can be realized: the dark web. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at what the dark web is.
Most broadly, the dark web is a collection of thousands of websites that aren’t visible to search engines or accessible in regular, commonplace browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and so on. Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, it’s distinct from the “deep web”; the deep web is simply every website or page that can’t be accessed through a search browser. Most websites will have deep web versions of all their pages that mirror the regular ones and use them often to work on pages before they go on the “clearnet”. The dark web is websites that have been purposely encrypted to hide them from view.
It’s impossible to know for sure how many sites are operating on the dark web, especially because they’re more or less entitled to this privacy since the dark web isn’t illegal in and of itself. It can be used for illegal purposes – yes – which the world’s media, governments, and most of the public find especially concerning, but hiding a website from a standard search engine or browser is far from a crime. Many people use the dark web simply as a way to anonymize themselves, not wanting to give over their personal details or browsing information to advertisers and corporations. With increasing concern over what tech giants like Google and Facebook are doing with people’s personal data, more and more are turning to use the dark web as a way to keep themselves safe rather than for any illicit purposes.
But, the stories are true: there is plenty of criminal activity on the dark web as well. A study found that 57% of some 2700 dark web sites were used for illegal purposes – most worryingly distributing illicit images of minors and the buying and selling of narcotics. One of the most infamous dark web sites was The Silk Road, a vast marketplace that has since been shut down in its original form used to circulate drugs. Specific task forces and new cyber-crimes units have been set up in numerous countries to specifically tackle how the dark web is used to trade contraband, such as the JOC, or Joint Operations Cell, in the UK. Further complicating investigations is the dark web’s reliance on Bitcoin, which can be spent and traded completely anonymously thanks to services like Bitcoin Fog. Bitcoin Fog scrambles Bitcoins during the payment process to stop them from being traced back to specific users, which can otherwise be possible.
The dark web is accessed primarily by the Tor browser, or by another Tor-based browser, which is available for a free download and grants you access to all those hidden sites. It works a bit like a VPN, by encrypting your IP address and bouncing it around many other servers before letting you onto a website itself. It’s this method, which is called “onion routing” because of all the layers of encryption, that makes it so hard for anyone to trace users, whether they’re criminals or not. In fact, “TOR” actually stands for “The Onion Router” , and the domains on there use “.onion” rather than “.com” or other more familiar suffixes. As well as being an alternative web browser, Tor also has alternatives for many of the big reasons people use the internet at all; it has sites like BlackBook, an anonymous Facebook-like place for dark web users to communicate with each other; it even has a library of torrented books for people to access.
But while the dark web’s booming drugs trade is bad, nobody’s going to force anyone to buy drugs if they don’t want to. Worse than this is the trade of private information that also exists on the dark web, where people’s data, such as usernames and passwords. The Ashley Madison breach was an infamous example of this type of crime, where the user information of the site – a site specializing in helping married people cheat on their spouses – was stolen and released on the dark web. Ashley Madison users have even had ransom notes asking for Bitcoin or else have their adulterous behavior revealed. Some of the worst crimes yet include a large market for human trafficking, as well as terrorist groups using it as a way to communicate, organize, and recruit. On top of that, it’s possible for people to buy access to bank accounts, Netflix accounts, and social media accounts, enabling people to commit fraud, industrial espionage, or release malware. This means that even people who don’t use the dark web are vulnerable to its criminal underbelly.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. The dark web can be used for a positive end, like by people who live in countries where censorship is common so that they can let people outside know what’s happening without being stopped. This is also important for journalists visiting such countries and whistle-blowers and is a way for people to communicate with each other without fear of retribution. This means that freedom of information and freedom of speech are a large part of the dark web’s network, and it can often be hugely beneficial.
Ultimately, the dark web is usually only as dangerous as the user, and there’s no guarantee or obligation that someone is using it to purchase contraband or commit cyber-crimes. Often, it’s simply seen as a safer alternative to using a mainstream web-browser that gathers and sells user information and data.
Most broadly, the dark web is a collection of thousands of websites that aren’t visible to search engines or accessible in regular, commonplace browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and so on. Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, it’s distinct from the “deep web”; the deep web is simply every website or page that can’t be accessed through a search browser. Most websites will have deep web versions of all their pages that mirror the regular ones and use them often to work on pages before they go on the “clearnet”. The dark web is websites that have been purposely encrypted to hide them from view.
It’s impossible to know for sure how many sites are operating on the dark web, especially because they’re more or less entitled to this privacy since the dark web isn’t illegal in and of itself. It can be used for illegal purposes – yes – which the world’s media, governments, and most of the public find especially concerning, but hiding a website from a standard search engine or browser is far from a crime. Many people use the dark web simply as a way to anonymize themselves, not wanting to give over their personal details or browsing information to advertisers and corporations. With increasing concern over what tech giants like Google and Facebook are doing with people’s personal data, more and more are turning to use the dark web as a way to keep themselves safe rather than for any illicit purposes.
But, the stories are true: there is plenty of criminal activity on the dark web as well. A study found that 57% of some 2700 dark web sites were used for illegal purposes – most worryingly distributing illicit images of minors and the buying and selling of narcotics. One of the most infamous dark web sites was The Silk Road, a vast marketplace that has since been shut down in its original form used to circulate drugs. Specific task forces and new cyber-crimes units have been set up in numerous countries to specifically tackle how the dark web is used to trade contraband, such as the JOC, or Joint Operations Cell, in the UK. Further complicating investigations is the dark web’s reliance on Bitcoin, which can be spent and traded completely anonymously thanks to services like Bitcoin Fog. Bitcoin Fog scrambles Bitcoins during the payment process to stop them from being traced back to specific users, which can otherwise be possible.
The dark web is accessed primarily by the Tor browser, or by another Tor-based browser, which is available for a free download and grants you access to all those hidden sites. It works a bit like a VPN, by encrypting your IP address and bouncing it around many other servers before letting you onto a website itself. It’s this method, which is called “onion routing” because of all the layers of encryption, that makes it so hard for anyone to trace users, whether they’re criminals or not. In fact, “TOR” actually stands for “The Onion Router” , and the domains on there use “.onion” rather than “.com” or other more familiar suffixes. As well as being an alternative web browser, Tor also has alternatives for many of the big reasons people use the internet at all; it has sites like BlackBook, an anonymous Facebook-like place for dark web users to communicate with each other; it even has a library of torrented books for people to access.
But while the dark web’s booming drugs trade is bad, nobody’s going to force anyone to buy drugs if they don’t want to. Worse than this is the trade of private information that also exists on the dark web, where people’s data, such as usernames and passwords. The Ashley Madison breach was an infamous example of this type of crime, where the user information of the site – a site specializing in helping married people cheat on their spouses – was stolen and released on the dark web. Ashley Madison users have even had ransom notes asking for Bitcoin or else have their adulterous behavior revealed. Some of the worst crimes yet include a large market for human trafficking, as well as terrorist groups using it as a way to communicate, organize, and recruit. On top of that, it’s possible for people to buy access to bank accounts, Netflix accounts, and social media accounts, enabling people to commit fraud, industrial espionage, or release malware. This means that even people who don’t use the dark web are vulnerable to its criminal underbelly.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. The dark web can be used for a positive end, like by people who live in countries where censorship is common so that they can let people outside know what’s happening without being stopped. This is also important for journalists visiting such countries and whistle-blowers and is a way for people to communicate with each other without fear of retribution. This means that freedom of information and freedom of speech are a large part of the dark web’s network, and it can often be hugely beneficial.
Ultimately, the dark web is usually only as dangerous as the user, and there’s no guarantee or obligation that someone is using it to purchase contraband or commit cyber-crimes. Often, it’s simply seen as a safer alternative to using a mainstream web-browser that gathers and sells user information and data.
