While the deep web can be considered safe as a whole, the further you venture, you can find yourself in danger. Areas of the deep web allow you to bypass local restrictions and access media that may not be available in your region. A very large part of the deep web is used in piracy and, towards the end, you can find yourself in the most dangerous area known as the dark web. Make Tech Easier provides tech tutorials, reviews, tips and tricks to help you navigate the complicated world of technology.
What Is Cyber Threat Intelligence?
The dark web — sometimes called darknet — is a small portion of the internet that is hidden and can be accessed only by using specific software, configurations, or authorization. A repository of sites that can’t be found by traditional search engines, the dark web is as intriguing as it is dangerous. We take a deep dive into what the dark web is and the dangers it poses. She combines her background in digital marketing from DePaul University with a passion for cybersecurity to create content that helps people and businesses stay secure. Her writing covers everything from password best practices to Privileged Access Management (PAM), with a focus on making technical topics easy to understand.
How To Access The Deep Web Safely
In fact, you probably already do it whenever you log in to a secured website. A dark web monitoring solution fetches threat intelligence feeds from the dark web, analyzes them, and gives you recommendations to preempt data breaches and attacks. You can also use the website’s search feature to locate content that web crawlers have not indexed. This is particularly useful for information-heavy sites such as government resources or academic databases. The websites that we frequently come across are just the tip of the iceberg of the vast amount of content that’s available on the internet. The internet has many distinct layers, each differing in its characteristics and how they are accessed.
Deep Web Vs Dark Web: 7 Key Differences Explained
To access the dark web anonymously, use a secure VPN service along with the Tor browser, as Tor networks are prone to ISP blocking. If you live in a country where Tor is banned, unblock Tor through mirror sites. Ultimately, the responsibility lies with individuals to govern their online conduct wisely. Prioritizing internet safety—utilizing encryption, employing secure passwords, practicing cautious engagement—can significantly reduce experiences of danger in both the deep and dark webs.
#2 Extra Protection
Tor can be used to visit everyday internet websites, but it also has numerous hidden websites and services which can’t be accessed on the regular internet. Tor powers them using its protocol known as Tor Hidden Service Protocol. And the websites limited to the Tor network have a special .onion address. While the future is mainly impossible to predict, when comparing deep web vs dark web vs shadow web, several trends are being witnessed, particularly in the dark web.
Key Differences: Deep Web Vs Dark Web
The dark web, on the other hand, makes up a tiny fraction of the internet as a whole. To access it at all, you need to use an anonymizing web browser such as “The Onion Router” (Tor) and a virtual private network (VPN). Later, we’ll delve deeper into how to access the dark web, but for now, you should just be aware that if you find yourself on a webpage and have no idea how you got there, it isn’t part of the dark web. Have you ever wondered how come a result pops up on your screen when you type something on a search bar? The World Wide Web is a service that runs on internet infrastructure. Specifically, it’s the network of websites hosted on web servers, connected to the internet.
We recommend using a VPN when visiting the deep and the dark web to add an extra layer of protection. NordVPN is the best VPN for the dark and the deep web thanks to its top-notch online privacy and security. Make the most of NordVPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee for risk-free deep or dark web exploration. Another factor to note is that while your traffic is encrypted several times, it’s not encrypted as it exits the last server in the chain.
Dark Web Vs Deep Web
Interestingly, even Facebook can be accessed as a Tor-hidden service, allowing users in countries with no legal access to its platform to visit the website safely. Most internet users access the deep web almost every time they are online. While the deep web is chiefly used for legitimate day-to-day online activities, the dark web is mainly anonymous and known as a haven for conducting illegal transactions. If the dark web lets users anonymously engage in illegal or dangerous activity, why does the government allow it to stay up and running? There isn’t any one way to access the deep web — it just depends on what you’re looking for.
The Key Differences Between The Deep Web And Dark Web
The surface web is also known as indexed or visible web, which every user accesses in their daily internet activities. People use the surface web for mundane tasks like visiting their favorite website, watching movies online, or shopping. The differences between the Deep Web and the Dark Web have implications for law enforcement.
Surfing the dark web could cause you to access dangerous websites or illegal content. However, while the internet includes a lot of data we don’t usually see (deep web), the dark web has a reputation for concealing and facilitating criminal activities. While both the dark and deep web represent parts of the internet that fall outside the scope of traditional search engines, they differ in accessibility, use cases, and the types of threats they expose. Unlike the dark web, you don’t need any special software to access the deep web and can use your usual browser. It may, however, require a username or password for authentication.
- The surface web includes all content indexed by search engines like Google.
- Although they share similarities, these parts of the internet serve very different purposes.
- Pages on the Deep Web are commonly protected by a login page, password, paywall, or other means of limiting access, and are designed to be private.
- If malicious actors operate an exit node, they can infect your traffic or downloads with worms, trojans or keyloggers.
- Dark net websites can only be accessed using designated browsers like Tor or I2P, and they’re different from those you come across on the surface web.
- Properly managed, the dark web becomes less a risk and more a source of strategic insight—supporting resilient, informed decision-making.
Like the deep web, the dark web is used for positive as well as nefarious purposes. On the positive side, dissidents, journalists, whistleblowers and advocates for freedom of speech are able to express themselves on the dark web with less risk of exposing their real-world identity. For example in countries with restrictions of freedom of speech such as China, users have successfully bypassed Internet controls with the TOR project.However, the darker side of the dark web is more infamous. Founded in 2011 and shut down by the FBI in 2013, the Silk Road was a black market for all kinds of illegal activity. Due to encryption and other privacy features, catching criminals on the dark web is difficult, and often requires agencies such as the FBI going into deep cover to try and surface criminal activity. Hence, the deep web literally comprises all those parts of the internet that are not indexed by search engines.
Is It Illegal To Access The Dark Web?
This information can be used to target ads and monitor your internet usage. NordVPN is offering a fully featured, risk-free 30-day trial if you sign up at this page. You can use the VPN rated #1 with no restrictions for a month—great if you need time to test if it’s the right VPN for you. That said, it is important to remember that there are hundreds of competing VPNs, and they are not all created equally. Many VPNs are sluggish, so they will not be suitable for data-intensive tasks.
Unlike the Deep Web, it is designed to offer anonymity and is often linked with unregulated online activities, although it also supports legitimate uses. It is also worth mentioning that it is believed that the NSA hosts a large number of entry and exit nodes into the dark web. On the other hand, the dark web is a small subset of the deep web that uses encryption to stay hidden from the surface web. It operates through a purposely obfuscated system of relay servers.
Now, Let’s Understand The Difference Between The Deep Web And Dark Web
The Deep Web is a section of the Internet that is inaccessible via search engines but can be accessed via normal browsers. It is composed of “non-indexed” content that is unreachable by the web crawlers used by Google, Bing, and other search engines to find and link pages. The dark web has a narrower scope, comprising a collection of purely non-indexed websites not searchable via regular web browsers. Most dark websites are used for illegal and illicit activity, but a few legal sites exist. According to Brittanica, the dark web makes up 0.01% of the deep web. The deep web doesn’t use unique methods to hide or serve content — it uses the same technologies the surface web relies on.
