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InfoSec Concept

Dark Web in a NutShell

All of us are familiar with the various search engines used in Internet for browsing various activities. Most of us think that internet is all we see or know through these search engines but in reality these search engines form only 0.03 percent of Internet. The web pages in surface web comprises of indexed pages that have been successfully identified by the search crawlers and have the quality or relatable content against users’ search phrases.

Internet consists for three major sections

1. Surface web
2. Deep Web and
3. Dark Web.

It is best to imagine the Web as an entire ocean: the surface web is the top of the ocean which appears to spread for miles around, and is the easiest part of the ocean to see or "access"; the deep web is the deeper part of the ocean beneath the surface; the dark web is the bottom of the ocean, a place accessible only by using special technologies.

Is Dark Web illegal?

While accessing the Dark Web is not illegal, its use to acquire illegal content and procure prohibited items is. For example, surfing the dark web is legal but procuring pirated copies of movies and games is illegal. Similarly, accessing information is not illegal unless the information is classified and crucial to the nation's security. Using Dark Web to access illicit content like child pornography, and procure prohibited items like drugs and guns is also illegal.

Not everything on the dark web is illegal, and using Tor and other browsers doesn’t expose you to any consequences. Also, visitors of dark web sites are no longer completely anonymous, so a VPN would be required for increased protection.

All in all, the dark web continues to be a source of fascination for a lot of people. Most will come back disappointed when they find out what the dark web actually is – just another bunch of websites with content not much different from what they experience every day.