What is Dark Web?

There is something compelling about the Dark Web, in the same way unsavory true crime stories and tales of disaster are lapped up by readers of mainstream news publications. Often confused with the Deep Web, it can be considered the Deep Web’s evil twin. Lurid myths about the heinous, blood curdling activities taking place “down there” abound. But, truth be told, it is not all bad. For many, the Dark Web is simply a place where users can be anonymous, work in isolation, and find information that is not publicly available through normal channels. For some, fed up with the intrusive marketing policies of companies like Google or Facebook, the Dark Web allows them to keep their search habits (nefarious or otherwise) private.

• Security experts estimate that at any given moment there are between 10,000 and 100,000 active sites
• Also known as Darknet, Deep Web, Invisible Web, or Hidden Internet
• Criminals exploit Dark Web anonymity to sell guns, drugs, and humans but governments and the UN also use it to protect political dissidents and hunt criminals
• If your data was leaked in a data breach, this is where it will put up for sale
• It has been reported that the first major digital media organization to create a website on the Dark Web was the New York Times.
• Not impenetrable, white hat hackers and law enforcement have made inroads tracking down criminals, including Ross Ulbricht, an American former drug trafficker and Darknet market operator, who created and ran the Silk Road website, an underground marketplace primarily for drugs, from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. Silk Road was shut down by the FBI in 2014.
• Allows for the frank and open exchange of ideas without censorship
• Enables the gathering of threat intelligence, e.g. information about planned terrorism attacks, money laundering and other criminal activities
• Protects journalists and their sources
• Offers an opportunity to tap data from multiple domains to get a competitive edge when making business decisions and identifying new technology and market trends. With the right tools, you can monitor your competitors’ movements, and find out what customers and your staff are saying about you under the radar of their privacy settings.
• Legal to access but any illegal activity can be prosecuted
• Edit By Hammad Munir