Dark Web

What is dark web?

ü The Dark Web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets: overlay networks that use the internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access.

ü The Dark Web was officially launched 20 years ago, on March 20, 2000 with the release of “Freenet” : a peer-to-peer, decentralized network, designed to make it less vulnerable to attack and snooping by authorities and states.

ü Through the Dark Web, private computer networks can communicate and conduct business anonymously without divulging identifying information, such as a user’s location.

ü The Dark Web forms a small part of the deep web, the part of the Web not indexed by web search engines.

The ‘Dark Web’ uses complex systems that anonymise a user’s true IP address, making it very difficult to work out which websites a device has visited. It is generally accessed using dedicated software, the best known is called TOR (The Onion Router). Around 2.5 million people use Tor every day.

Why was dark web created?

In the late 1990s two research organizations in the US Department of Defense drove efforts to develop an anonymized and encrypted network that would protect the sensitive communications of US spies.

This secret network would not be known or accessible to ordinary internet suffers.

Is it illegal?

Using TOR or visiting the Dark Web are not unlawful in themselves. It is of course illegal to carry out illegal acts anonymously, such as

ü accessing child abuse images

ü promoting terrorism

ü or selling illegal items such as weapons

What is tor?

It is an open source privacy network that enables anonymous web browsing.

Is it safe to enter dark web?

In the US, visiting the dark web is legal, though using Tor without the safety of a VPN may draw scrutiny from your ISP as well as from the government. And while visiting the dark web may be legal, using it to engage in criminal activity is definitely not.