Navigating the Dark Web: Myths, Realities, and What Lies Beneath

 

The internet has made our lives

so much easier, right?

If you want to order 

then you can order food in one click.

If you want to watch a movie,

you can watch the movie in one click.

And if you don't like the movie,

you can go to Twitter and in one click,

write Boycott Bollywood.

But what if I tell you that

we can access only 5% of the internet

and the remaining 95% is hidden from us?

People go here and order drugs

as easily as you order food.

Just like you can watch a movie,

people can watch someone being tortured.

They can even hire hackers

to hack someone's bank account.

We are talking about the dark web.

All these things sound like

a thriller movie,

but this is the truth of

today's digital world.

Before starting the blog,

there is a warning for our viewers.

The information I am going to give you

in this blog can be dangerous for you,

so please do not try it.

I know you must be very curious,

but please understand that accessing

the dark web is unsafe for you and me,

so please don't try this.

But this blog is important because

scams have increased a lot these days.

And if you are aware of how scams happen,

then you can be careful

with your data and information.

If you find this blog interesting

and learn something new,

then do not forget to follow

or subscribe to the blog.

This is free for you,

but it helps us a lot.

Chapter One: The 3 Levels 

of the Internet.

We can divide the internet into

3 categories.

Surface Web, Deep Web, and Dark Web.

Imagine that internet is like an ocean,

where the boats float is the surface,

where the divers go is the deep web,

and below that where sunlight

does not reach is the dark web.

The internet we use today

is called surface web.

Before any website,

we type www i.e. World Wide Web.

This is the surface web where you have

Instagram, YouTube, Facebook,

everything you need.

Whatever is on the surface web

is indexed on Google,

which means it is very easy for you

to access when you search.

The surface web has information indexed

for the public to find.

Here if you want basic information

about someone then you can get it with

a simple Google search,

but you will not get their bank account,

or their PAN number, or their blood group,

or which memes they share

with their best friend.

The search engine works

as a librarian for you.

When you go to the library

and ask for a book from the librarian,

the librarian searches the entire library

8and gives you that particular book.

This is basically what search engines do.

But if a child goes to the librarian

and asks for an adult book,

the librarian will not give them

that book, right?

Search engines similarly

filter information for us.

Basically, no matter how famous

a person is,

no website makes their personal data

available to you.

It is reserved only for them.

This part of the Internet is hidden

behind a password.

For example, if they want to know

how much money is in their bank account,

then they have to sign in

to their net banking.

This information is password-protected.

That means the deep web is all that

content that search engines hide from you,

which is not publicly available to people.

A simple way to understand

this is your email or your DMs.

Only you know which meme

your friend has sent you,

Instagram knows and your friend knows,

no matter how much someone else searches,

Instagram still does not tell them

this information.

Instagram hides this information

to protect you.

This is the deep web.

Information not indexed for the public.

This deep web constitutes 94% of

the entire internet.

Let's go back to that librarian example.

A librarian has all the data available

about which person has borrowed

which book, and when they returned it.

But it does not share this data with you

because this data is private,

and basically, you do not need this data.

That is the deep web.

Whenever you use the internet privately,

you access the deep web.

But the next part of the internet

is hidden from you

and that is the dark web.

If we have to access the dark web,

then we have to cross

another layer of protection

and enter the dark web.

No link from the dark web

will open directly on your mobile.

You will need a special browser.

The dark web is a very small part

of the internet, maybe only one percent,

but in this one percent some things

are not good for you and me

about which we will know further.

Chapter 2: How did the dark web 

arise?

Ok, first of all, let's understand that

the dark web is not a hell

where the devil lives.

Instead, it is Batman's Gotham City

where the rules are different

from the rest of the world,

where there is no censorship.

The dark web is that part of the internet

where you will find everything,

good and bad, ethical and unethical,

legal and illegal.

What is the need for the dark web?

Well, because of surveillance.

The use case of the dark web is that

it hides your identity and your location,

which makes it difficult for anyone

to track you.

Just as you and I use the internet

for communication,

similarly governments also use

the internet for different things.

If they used the surface web for

communication,

then anyone could intercept it

and get intelligence information.

This information may be misused.

In the 1990s,

when the Cold War was ending,

American scientists tried to solve

this problem with onion routing.

What is this onion routing?

Basically, like an onion has layers,

information is also protected

by different layers.

Look at data as a package.

If you write your message on a postcard,

the postman can read it,

so what do you do?

You put it in an envelope.

But if the envelope is also held against

a light, then what is inside can be read.

So to increase protection you use

a double envelope.

Usually, when we order online

and the value of the order is very large,

we receive an OTP.

We get the package only after submitting

this OTP.

So what we do is we introduce

an additional layer of security.

Online routing works similarly.

When data is passed through this method,

only the sender and receiver can know

what is inside.

This is the base of the dark web.

If you have searched

about the dark web before,

then you would know that to access

the dark web,

you need a special browser called Tor.

TOR is named after this

onion-routing technique.

TOR, The Onion Router.

Just as our usual links end

with .com or .org,

similarly the links of the dark web

end with .onion.

You cannot open this

with your normal browser.

For this, you will need TOR.

Criminals often do illegal things

on the dark web,

and they cannot take payment for

illegal things through credit cards

because all the credit card data

is tracked.

That is why cryptocurrency

is used for this.

A cryptocurrency called Monero

was the dark web favorite.

There was a website named Silk Road

which was operational only

from 2011 to 2013.

The FBI shut it down in 2013.

But in just these 2 years,

they made a revenue of

9.5 million bitcoins.

Not 9.5 million dollars,

9.5 million bitcoins!

Of course, this is from 2013,

the Bitcoin of that time

was not the Bitcoin of today.

But still, in just 2 years this amount

is huge.

Silk Road was closed

but many more websites like it

started being created.

Silk Road 2.0 and then Silk Road 3.0,

and so on and so forth.

When you hear about a data breach,

your data is being sold somewhere.

Where is it sold?

People steal and sell

credit card information.

Where?

On the dark web.

Here, organs are sold illegally,

kidnapping takes place,

and child pornography takes place.

In total, 2000 to 10000 different types

of websites exist on the dark web

which do shady things of different levels.

But the dark web is not just negative.

Many news organizations use the dark web.

In countries where there is

no free speech,

where people's phones

are always being tapped,

if the sources there have to convey

any information to the media,

then how will they do it?

Through the dark web.

Chapter 3: Stay away from the dark 

web.

What is the point of this blog?

Well, I found many such blog

on the surface web i.e. regular internet

on how you can access the dark web easily,

but did not find any blog explaining

why to stay away from it.

Let us understand.

Your IP address is your online identity.

Whenever you are using any website,

you can be traced with the help of

your IP address.

Your IP address leaves a footprint that

allows government agencies to track you.

But the TOR browser erases your traces

so it will be difficult to track you.

Suppose you are sitting on a computer

from Delhi and you are accessing a website

from New York,

then instead of connecting you directly

from Delhi to New York,

TOR connects you there

through a long route.

TOR uses relays to send your signal

from Delhi to Japan, then to Africa,

then to Russia,

and finally from Russia to New York.

There are more than 7000 such relay points

in the TOR network.

But this anonymity of the dark web

also gives scammers a big platform.

Let us understand through an example.

Suppose you have placed an order on Amazon

and made the payment,

and you have not received the order,

then you talk to the customer service

of Amazon, and if things are not handled

then you can also file a police complaint.

But if you place an order for

something illegal on the dark web,

and those websites are operated

by scammers, then what will happen?

Today 99% of the dark web is this.

It is full of scammers who lure people

with drugs for very little money,

then take their money, and do not deliver.

They know that neither they can be tracked

nor that anyone will complain

against them.

People often go to the dark web

for privacy,

but because of the dark web your privacy

can get leaked.

As you understood, links on the dark web

do not open on your normal browser.

But if you have a dark web browser

on your phone or laptop,

and you accidentally click a link,

then you can become a victim of

a big scam.

You see, it is not illegal to visit

the dark web, but it is illegal to place

wrong orders by visiting the wrong website

on the dark web.

There are things on the dark web

that can leave a deep psychological impact

on you.

Like Red Rooms,

where people upload videos of themselves

torturing others.

It is better to stay away

from all these things.

If you got value from this blog

or learned something new,

the dark web and search for something.

The purpose of this blog is to warn you,

especially the teenagers,

so please do not forget to share

this blog with them because

the dark web can be dangerous,

and conveying this important thing to you

matters to me.

Hey friends, thank you so much

for reading this blog till the end.

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If you are interested in cyber security

then do not forget to read this blog.

Thank you so much for reading

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