Since the internet is open to everyone, there is no privacy. However, technological advancements such as encryption and privacy-focused browsers like Tor enabled the general public to access it. While it might appear tempting to venture into the dark web, it’s crucial to understand that the risks here are far more severe compared to the deep web. The dark web also helps individuals communicate about or sell illegal items such as weapons, drugs, malware, etc. An easy way to find content on the dark web is to receive a link from someone who already knows about it.
Myth: It’s One Huge Unified Network
These peer-to-peer, invite-only, and/or vouchering networks are faster, cheaper, and less vulnerable to disruption by law enforcement,” Kroll says. “Some migrate to private forums, other ransomware groups, create new ransomware groups, or adopt decentralized technologies like blockchain-based hosting or intermittent access platforms that are harder to trace and takedown. The group provided bulletproof hosting (BPH) services to the cybercriminals that breached health insurer Medibank Private. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) participated in a Europol-led investigation that in 2024 shut down LockBit’s primary platform along with 34 servers across the US, the UK, Europe, and Australia. To help understand the changing dynamics, here’s what CISOs need to know about the trade of stolen information, new marketplaces, the availability of malicious tools, and the impact of AI on the dark web. Continuous monitoring of stealer logs, credential leaks, and dark web chatter should be a core function of threat intelligence, not an occasional sweep after an incident.
For Using The Internet Anonymously
- If you want to use the internet without giving up your most sensitive, valuable data, many European services offer a privacy-forward alternative.
- It represents about 90% of the internet and has important, and yes, secret information.
- Think of it as the glossy shop windows of the internet — what you see is only what’s on display, neatly categorized and searchable.
- “By having insights into the dark web, security professionals have a better understanding of threat actor behaviors and motivations,” Currie says.
It also attracts those seeking anonymity for less ethical or illegal purposes. However, understanding how it works is crucial for appreciating the broader landscape of online privacy and security. This includes implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA), using robust firewalls, regularly patching systems, and encrypting sensitive data. Specialized threat intelligence services can scan dark web forums and marketplaces for mentions of your company’s data. Companies should actively monitor the dark web for stolen employee credentials, customer data, and intellectual property.
Legal Uses Of The Dark Web
The dark web has several anonymity layers, making it difficult to access. The deep web includes both legal and illegal content, including the portion known as the dark web. This is below the surface web and accounts for about 90% of all websites. The darknet is a private place where nobody can intercept, monitor, or steal anything online from you.
For the most security-conscious, you can even install the Tails operating system on a flash drive and run Tor from that. If you want to improve your security further, you could also use a VPN at the same time as Tor. It’s a free-to-use web browser based on Firefox that lets you access the dark web relatively safely. In this guide, we’ll show you what you need to know about how to access the dark web and how to keep yourself safe while you use it.
Use A Secure And Private Operating System
After more than a year of no updates, the site admin shut it down, reasoning that he couldn’t keep the list of onion links up-to-date. It hosted over 7,000 .onion categorized links to make surfing the web easier. However, you should not see it as an opportunity to engage in illegal activities to avoid trouble with authorities. Do you want to access the Onion sites with multiple devices? It will route your traffic through multiple servers instead of one, making tracking your data and activities even harder. It will make your VPN activities seem like normal traffic, so you can use an uncensored internet.
Are Dark Websites Illegal To Use And Visit?
Indeed, most nations; including the United States, the United Kingdom, and India, allow access to the dark web as a lawful activity. Access to “.onion” domains and anonymous surfing made possible by specialised software like the Tor Browser allows entry only. By using Tor and a reputable VPN, along with being careful and having the right tools, you can browse the dark web legally and safely.
Dark Web Links: The Best Onion And Tor Sites In 2025
Privacy is crucial for people terrorized by stalkers and criminals. The dark web helps people to maintain privacy and freely express their views. It includes the pages that don’t pop up when you run a web search. Data on the deep web is usually encrypted and not listed on search indexes.
Configure Tor For Privacy
This presents both privacy and security risks, as leaked data is a major problem. Recently, more people are becoming aware of the actual price you pay for supposedly free services and looking for alternatives. When you create a Proton Mail account, you are both protecting your most valuable data and helping build a better internet where privacy is the default.
And once you’re inside, one wrong click on a fake .onion site can expose your identity or infect your device with malware. If you don’t use the right tools or settings, your ISP can still flag your connection. He is also a member of the board of directors at the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organisation (AMTSO) Alexander Vukcevic is the Director off Protection Labs and Quality Assurance at Avira. There are also some excellent ways to protect your privacy from most bad actors. If that happens, you can only hope that they will inform you in accordance with GDPR procedures and that the data has not been copied and added to a database for sale on the dark web.
However, it also offers significant advantages, especially in terms of privacy and security. It is particularly vital for users in countries under oppressive regimes, offering a lifeline for free speech. In fact, millions of people navigate the dark web daily for legitimate reasons. The dark web might sound like a mysterious part of the internet, and in many ways, it is.
Tor is a browser engineered for extra security and privacy, and can be used to navigate the normal, surface web as well as the dark web. You’ll often see these terms used in your travels across the internet, and there’s some confusion about what they mean. It’s a part of the internet that’s less regulated and more shadowy, for better and for worse. It’s somewhere Google and Bing don’t index, and you need special tools to get to it. The dark web, for the uninitiated among you, is a virtual neighborhood beyond the borders of the normal, everyday internet (which includes the website you’re looking at right now).
Hidden, encrypted and out of reach of traditional search engines, the dark web is a place where anonymity rules. It is notorious for illegal transactions and activities such as drug trafficking, arms dealing and identity fraud. The dark web is a section of the Internet not searchable through traditional search engines, where privacy and anonymity reign.
Final Thoughts: The Dark Web Is Not Just For Criminals
Dark web search engines exist, but even the best are challenged to keep up with the constantly shifting landscape. The dark web is a subset of the deep web that is intentionally hidden, requiring a specific browser—Tor—to access, as explained below. Only a tiny portion of the internet is accessible through a standard web browser—generally known as the “clear web”. There are also many tools that can be use to monitor the dark web and scan for personally identifiable information and even respond to attacks. Start by downloading the Tor browser, which is necessary to access dark web sites. The Hidden Wiki and its mirrors and forks hold some of the largest directories of content at any given time.
This makes it extremely difficult for your ISP or anyone with access to your internet records to know which sites you visit or apps you use. For example, the Epic browser is programmed to always run in private mode, so it doesn’t store data about which sites you visit. For many people, the answer is by using regular websites such as Reddit. Even if such sites were blocked from the regular open web, anyone using the Tor Browser could still access their email using the .onion addresses.
