You might have heard the terms dark web and Tor mentioned in the media, however, accessing them isn’t as risky as it sounds. Actually, it’s easy to get up and running.
The dark web is a set of websites that are not indexable by search engines like Google. The dark web is the part of the internet where data and content would otherwise be kept private. For example email inboxes as well as online banking logins and Google Drive folders live on the deep web – they aren’t visible to users using a regular browser.
There are numerous websites on the dark web that serve legitimate functions. SecureDrop is one example. It is a dark-web site that allows anonymously submitting sensitive information by whistleblowers. There are other websites where people can purchase and sell stolen credentials, like passwords and credit card numbers. These sites are often referred to «marketplaces» and the most well-known examples are Silk Road and AlphaBay, however there are many others that have gone out of business.
Tor is the mainstay of the dark web. It connects you through a variety of volunteer servers scattered across the world. This makes it difficult for anyone to monitor your activities. Tor’s name comes from the fact that the traffic it encrypts is layered like the layers of a pizza. This is a way to ensure anonymity.
