If You Use The Internet And Virtual Space Daily, You Have Probably Heard The Name Dark Web) Or Have Heard Of The Dark Web.
In the continuation of this article from Hardware City, we intend to define the dark web for you, dear users, teach how to enter the black net, and finally point out essential points about dealing with this particular part of the Internet.
As you know, the Internet has changed in many ways since it was first made available to the public in the 1990s, and as a result, it has transformed people’s lives. One of the most controversial developments in the Internet in recent years is the growth of the ” dark web ” category.
The growth of the dark web has parents and adults concerned about young people visiting the dark web, and given that press reports often associate it with dangerous or illegal online activity, it’s understandable.
However, as with any revolutionary development, the problems and disadvantages do not come from the technology itself but from how people use it. In other words, although entering the dark web site can have consequences and penalties, accessing the dark web can also have its benefits.
Hence, knowing the basic facts about these parts of the Internet and the consequences of entering the dark web can help you safely enjoy the positive aspects of the dark web in the continuation of this article, the city of hardware, first, to the fundamental question ” Dark Web.”What is? » and then introduce you to the dark part of the Internet by teaching you how to enter the dark web and how to use it.
What is the dark web?
The Dark Web is the part of the Internet not indexed by regular search engines. You have undoubtedly heard of the “dark web” as a center of criminal activities, and unfortunately, it must be said that this title is not far from reality. Researchers Daniel Moore and Thomas Reid of King’s College London classified the content of 2,723 active dark websites over five weeks in 2015 and found that 57 percent hosted illegal content; So, maybe the benefits of entering shady websites are much less than the disadvantages for most people.
A 2019 study by Dr. Michael McGuires at the University of Surreydone shows that the situation has worsened in recent years. The number of dark websites that can harm a company or organization has increased by 20% since 2016. The most terrifying point of this research is that it says that from the list of all dark web sites (excluding the sections that sell drugs!), about 60% have the potential to harm companies and organizations.
Remember that shopping on the dark web is one of the most critical and dangerous uses of this part of the Internet.
By entering the Dark WebYou can buy hacked user accounts of all kinds of websites and credit bank accounts for all types of medicines, drugs, weapons, and military equipment.
But note that this does not mean that everything is illegal on the dark web, but that the dark web also has a legal side. For example, some unique and confidential groups that do not want to make their website address available to search services also operate on the dark web, and you can access a particular social network such as BlackBook by accessing the dark web. (aka “Facebook of the Tour”) Join.
Some of the links in this Hardware City article are related to dark web websites that only work with the Tor browser are accessible. If interested, you can download this dark web browser for free at https://www.torproject.orgDownload and open links related to shady websites.
The difference between the dark web and the deep web
The terms “deep web” and “dark web” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they differ. The deep web refers to anything on the Internet not indexed by a search engine such as Google and, therefore, inaccessible on Google. Deep web content or Deep WebThis includes anything behind a paywall or pages that require a username and password to log in.
The deep web also includes any content whose owners allow web crawlers to access it) that is not given to them for indexing, which is the most crucial difference between the dark and deep web.
Medical records, fee-based content, membership-based websites, and confidential corporate web pages are just a few examples of the deep web. Estimates put the size of the deep web between 96 and 99 percent of the Internet. Only a tiny portion of the Internet is accessible through a standard web browser called Clear WebIs.
The dark web is a subset of the deep web that is intentionally hidden and, as mentioned, requires a particular browser ( Tor) to access.) needs. No one knows the size of the dark web, but most estimates put it at about 5 percent of the Internet. Also, despite its ominous name, not all of the dark web is used for illegal purposes, and there are positive aspects.
Services and consequences of entering the dark web
The published report on the list of shady websites identified several dark web tools or services that could pose a risk in the form of network breaches or data compromise:
- Contamination or attacks such as malware distributed denial of service ( DDoS), and botnets
- Access attacks such as remote access trojans ( RATs) .), keyloggers, and exploits
- Spying tools and services targeting organizations or individuals
- Phishing
- a refund
- customer information
- Operational and confidential data
- Financial data
- Intellectual property or trade secrets
The report also identified three cases of the consequences of entering the dark web, each of which originates from the mentioned services:
- Decrease in the company’s value: This event can include the weakening of trust in the brand, damage to the reputation, or the loss of the company’s share in the competitive market.
- Disrupting the company: This event can include DDoS attacks and other malware that affects business operations
- Company fraud can also include IP theft or spying that disrupts the company’s ability to compete or causes direct financial loss.
Also, ransomware-as-a-service ( RaaS) kits) have been available on the dark web for several years. Still, in recent years, these kits have been offered with the emergence of specialized criminal groups such as REvilor GandCrabThey have become much more dangerous. These groups develop their sophisticated malware, sometimes combined with existing tools, and distribute it to other ransomware groups.
Then this secondary dark web group uses the mentioned tool to attack the victims’ information. As you probably know, these attacks often involve stealing victims’ data and threatening to publish it on the dark web if they don’t pay a ransom.
The exciting and slightly scary thing is that this business model has been successful and profitable. For example, the security section of IBM Security X-Force reported that 29% of its ransomware interactions in 2020 involved the REvil cyber groups. The main cyber groups that developed the malware typically get between 20 and 30 percent of the revenue of the secondary groups. Hence IBMIt estimates that REvil profit last year was about 81 million dollars.
Dark web browser
Due to the misinformation that Instagram posts and the yellow press are spreading about the dark web, you might think navigating and being on it is easy and hassle-free, but it is not. When you enter a part of the Internet where everyone is anonymous and a significant minority are out to scam others, there are no specific rules, and things are as chaotic as possible. Nevertheless, it is an unknown and powerful browser that comes to the aid of users.
Accessing the dark web requires using an anonymous browser called Torhas. Tor browser routes your web page requests through a series of proxy servers run by thousands of volunteers worldwide, and the IP address makes you unidentifiable and untraceable. TorIt all works to get you onto the dark web, but the result is an experience that’s like the dark web itself: unpredictable, unreliable, and maddeningly slow.
Dark web search engine
Although there are many versions of dark web search engines, even the best ones have many problems keeping up with the constant changes of the dark web. The performance of these search engines is almost identical to what web search engines experienced in the late 1990s.
For example, even one of the best dark web search engines, Grams, returns repetitive and often irrelevant results to the user’s query. Other search engines like The Hidden WikiThere also provide the user with a list of links related to Dar Koob sites. But even such search engines have many problems and present a disappointing number of broken links and 404 errors in front of the user.
Entering the dark web and dark web sites
Dark websites are almost like any other, but some essential differences exist. One of these differences is the naming structure of the dark website. Shady websites instead of going to. Com. coto end, too. Onion end, each of which can be used as a link to enter the dark web.
According to the Wikipedia article, it is “a special top-level domain extension provided by an anonymous secret service accessible via the Tor network specifies.” Browsers with the correct proxy can access these sites, but other browsers cannot access dark websites. Keep in mind that access to the dark web is not limited to the Tor browser, and hackers and people in this field may also use more advanced services to enter the dark web.
Additionally, dark websites use a hashed naming structure. This creates URLs that are often impossible to remember. For example, a popular trading site called Dream Market with the unintelligible address ” eajwlvm3z2lcca76.onionIt is on the dark web.
Remember that many websites on the dark web are run by scammers who constantly have to change addresses to avoid angering their victims. Even business sites that may have been around for a year or more can suddenly disappear, pocketing their customers’ deposits without a trace.
Of course, fraud using dark websites has also become more difficult recently. Law enforcement officials have gotten better at finding and prosecuting the owners of places that sell illegal goods and services. In the summer of 2017, a team of cyber police from three different countries successfully hacked the AlphaBay website. They shut down what was known as the dark web’s largest source of contraband, causing panic across the web.
In this context, Patrick Ticket, Keeper Security security and architecture manager, said the Tor network’s anonymous nature is also mainly against DDoSIt, making it vulnerable. Given that dark web sites vs. DDoS are weak, he claimed: “Sites are constantly changing addresses to DDoSprevent, which creates a very dynamic environment. “As a result, the search quality varies greatly, and many search contents are outdated.”
Artificial intelligence models in the service of the dark web
Introducing artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT has created a revolution in technology. Dark web activists have not been left behind and have developed artificial intelligence models such as DarkBERT, which have been trained with the information available in the dark part of the Internet.
This large language model is produced based on the dark web, which uses the information available on the dark side of the Internet. According to the announcement of the Korean developers, the DarkBERT language model is based on the RoBERTa architecture. Engineers used the Tor network to train this model and then filtered the obtained data to create a database based on the dark web.
By analyzing different parts of the dark web, this language model can extract helpful information so that security researchers and police can monitor dark web events more closely.
Frequently asked questions about the dark web
How to enter the dark web?
As mentioned, to register on the Dark Web, you must download and install Tor Browser from this link for free. You can open connections to dark websites as quickly as any other website.
What are the consequences of entering the dark web?
One of the disadvantages of the dark web is its lawlessness. Considering that many fraudsters operate in this part of the Internet, your information may be hacked and shared if you enter this space without prior knowledge.
What is the difference between Dark Web and Deep Web?
The deep web, commonly known as the deep net, refers to a collection of sites not indexed or accessible to Google or other search engines. It would be best to have particular search engines like Ahmia and Torch to find such places.
But the dark web is a subset of the deep web that is intentionally hidden and requires a particular Tor browser to access. So far, exact statistics on the size of the dark web have not been published, but some believe the black web constitutes about 5% of the internet space.
How to search on the dark web?
As mentioned in the previous sections of this article, the search engines on the dark web struggle with many problems, such as old information and irrelevant results. But perhaps the best of them is GramsYou can access it with this link.
In general, people who use the dark web enter this part of the Internet for a specific address and destination, and due to its disadvantages, using the dark web for web browsing is not recommended at all. Therefore, it is preferable only to enter links from the dark web that you are familiar with or have obtained from a reliable source.
Conclusion
In this article by Shahr-e-Fazhar, we have discussed the black web category and how to enter the dark web, and we have introduced you, dear users, to some consequences of entering the dark web and its benefits. In short, it can be said that for an average internet user who only wants to surf the web and spend time, entering the dark web and being in the space of shady websites is entirely useless and can lead to hacking and loss of personal data.
But on the other hand, if you are interested in social networks or active groups on the black web and are not afraid of losing your information, you can enter the dark web sites using the links given in this article of Hardware City.
What do you think about the pros and cons of entering the dark web? Do you know of a specific website or group that only works on the dark web? Please share your thoughts with us in the section below.