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Dark WebThe dark web is the deliberately hidden part of the internet. Sometimes mistaken for the deep web—email, medical records, and other content locked behind login pages—dark websites can only be accessed with specialized software that hides a user's identity and location. This has provided anonymity to informants, whistleblowers, and journalists and spawned darknet marketplaces—hubs where drugs, malware, stolen data, and other illicit goods can be bought and sold.
The dark web emerged after the US Naval Research Laboratory developed onion routing in the mid-1990s to protect overseas military and intelligence personnel. The technology prevents the origin and destination of online communications from being known simultaneously. This makes it extremely difficult for sites built on the protocol and users on the network to be located. As a result, the exact number of dark web (or onion) sites is unknown, particularly since they are not discoverable via traditional web search.
In 2008, the release of Tor, a web browser that enabled nontechnical users to access onion sites, expanded the size and user base of the dark web. Reports suggest that about 60% of the dark web is dedicated to illegal activities, though the CIA, Facebook, and other legitimate institutions also have onion sites.Explore Dark Web
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Accessing the dark web is legal in the US, the EU, and most countries worldwideAs long as users do not pay for illegal goods or services or acquire illegal content, they cannot be prosecuted. Those on the dark web include academics, researchers, and cybersecurity experts gathering threat intelligence on cybercriminals, cyberterrorists, and state actors, as well as protesters, activists, and grassroots organizers. AvastAs of April 2022, a million people access Facebook on the dark web monthlyWhile those using an anonymized web browser, such as Tor, have been able to access the social network's .onion site since 2014, the announcement marks a major milestone by the tech giant, which has worked to ensure its users can bypass restrictions by various governments and continue visiting the site. QuartzWatch an ethical hacker provide a tour of the dark webCybersecurity researcher John Hammond explores the effectiveness of a dark web search engine, leaks from ransomware group data breaches, and a categorized index of dark web links, including some that are alleged to host malware. Many dark web sites are no longer active or host scams to fool unsuspecting visitors. John HammondA 2020 study suggests just 6.7% of Tor network users visit sites on the dark webIt did not distinguish between visits to malicious sites and traffic to legitimate institutions with .onion domains, such as the BBC or Buzzfeed, and thus claimed that 6.7% of anonymized users engage in nefarious activity. The low percentage still highlights that most users of the technology underlying the dark web do not use it to browse the hidden portion of the internet. Big ThinkExplore metrics on the Tor network, the infrastructure of the dark webWhile internet traffic within the network is concealed, public, nonsensitive data can be used to estimate the number of active users, the number of relay servers, network performance speed and reliability, etc. Researchers can use this data to indirectly identify political upheavals or censorship campaigns worldwide, such as the Arab Spring. Tor ProjectCredit monitoring services may oversell the benefits of dark web monitoringCurrently, technology exists to scrape and download data from webpages, which can then be analyzed to identify a user's information. However, scrapers cannot access or remove personal data from dark websites because they are often protected by paywalls, rendering monitoring ineffective beyond reporting publicly available data breaches. NBC NewsSilk Road, the dark web's first widely used market, proved the real-world utility of bitcoinNamed after the ancient intercontinental trade network between China and the Roman Empire, the anonymous market was active from early 2011 to October 2013. Before it was shut down, approximately 10,000 products—70% of which were illegal and controlled prescription drugs—were bought and sold using the cryptocurrency. Stuff You Should KnowIndividuals have been convicted of ordering assassinations from the dark webResearchers have uncovered online storefronts allegedly run by members of various mafia or hitmen that offer to harm or murder individuals in exchange for monetary payment. However, no known murder has been attributed to any of them, and cybercrime task forces believe them to be scams (warning—sensitive content). TED-EdMarketplaces on the dark web provide eBay-like vendor feedback scoresAn HP analysis found that 77% of cybercriminal marketplaces require vendors to purchase a license to sell their products, which can cost up to $3,000. About 92% of these marketplaces also use a third-party dispute-resolution service to handle customer service issues, thereby promoting "honor among thieves." HPTechnical vulnerabilities prevent full-proof anonymity when browsing the dark webDespite encrypting data and relaying it within the Tor network, traffic between the network exit and the final destination is no longer hidden and can be captured. Law enforcement agencies can also attempt to deanonymize users by monitoring and matching data signal patterns entering and leaving the network via a correlation algorithm. TechofideExplore content on the dark web safely with the Ahmia search engineEndorsed by the Tor project, the 501(c)(3) research-education nonprofit responsible for the software needed to navigate the dark web, Ahmia allows users to search known onion sites while blocking illegal and harmful content. Through the search engine, activists can learn where to anonymously send files to media outlets. AhmiaThe dark web protects free speech from censorship and authoritarian oversightEncrypted networks allow users with internet access anywhere in the world to view blocked content and avoid surveillance when communicating evidence of abuse to independent journalists. The same networks can support democracies by helping activists coordinate protests on dark web forums. Johns Hopkins UniversityAs of 2025, an estimated $3.2B in annual revenue flows through dark web platformsThe untraceable cryptocurrency Monero is used in about 60% of transactions across more than 37 active marketplaces that sell copyrighted materials, private information, and phishing kits—tools that help bad actors more easily create fake sites to steal users' data—for financial fraud. SQ MagazineFraud and identity theft are among the most common dark web-related crimesCredit card information, driver's license or passport scans, and login credentials are among the data bought and sold on dark web marketplaces, which can appear there without users' knowledge through data breaches. Medical records can fetch higher sums of money for their potential use in blackmail and insurance fraud. ExperianA US Department of Defense research lab developed the technology for the dark webAlthough encryption existed to mask the content of communications across the internet before the 1990s, those managing overseas network infrastructure could determine a spy's affiliation based on where they saw data sent to and received from. To keep this information secret, the US Naval Research Laboratory developed onion routing, which enabled anonymized web browsing. The release of the technology to the public obscured sensitive communications further by growing the volume of anonymous data. Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe dark web cannot be stumbled upon by accidentMany pages on the dark web are not publicly broadcast and are available only to relevant parties on a need-to-know basis. Although some online directories list the URLs for these webpages, connecting to them still requires specialized software, as these pages block connections from traditional web browsers such as Chrome. IBM TechnologyInstead of .com or similar, web addresses on the dark web end in 'd.onion'Since the latest version of the onion routing protocol, dark web domain names consist of a random set of 56 alphanumeric characters followed by .onion (e.g., propublica.org → p53lf57qovyuvwsc6xnrppyply3vtqm7l6pcobkmyqsiofyeznfu5uqd.onion). The last character is always "d" due to the encryption algorithm's requirements. DigicertThe dark web makes up about 0.01% of all the data on the internetThe surface web (5%-10%) consists of indexed sites—those traditional search engines have visited and stored so users can discover them via web search. The remaining 90%-95% makes up the deep web, which is not indexed and includes email and banking portals that require login credentials. The dark web is unindexed and requires anonymizing software to visit. NortonThe dark web can expose anonymous users to potentially dangerous environmentsBrowsing the dark web requires onion routing, which prevents visitors from being identified and the locations from which they connect from being traced. This has been useful to activists in environments affected by political oppression or instability. However, those unfamiliar with navigating the space may encounter malware and network attacks from denizen hackers. IBM TechnologyTrudging through the dark web to expose child abuseA computer expert who created a system to track down sources of revenge porn and an investigative journalist joined forces to investigate digital abuse. Their investigations focused on so-called clear nets, websites that make up the web most users surf. Then, they turned their investigation toward the dark web, where they found a child abuse website with more than 1 million registered users. Hunting WarheadWhy is Bob Dylan on Patreon?The singer's notorious for his inscrutability, but his venture into the content subscription website might be one of his stranger choices, especially given the posted content that resembles AI-generated material. Pitchfork's Nina Corcoran surveys the site and tries to make sense. PitchforkIn high school, Mark Zuckerberg rejected Microsoft's proposal to buy his music suggestion software for $950KMark Zuckerberg and Adam D'Angleo built a website called "Synapse," which created playlists for users based on their listening preferences and an algorithm to suggest new songs, in September 2002. Before 'The Facebook', Mark Zuckerberg made 'Facemash.com'During Mark Zuckerberg's sophomore year at Harvard, he built a website that allowed users to rank and rate people's pictures from the school's online "facebooks" called Facemash.com, which quickly went viral. He was placed on academic probation for violating the school's rules around data, privacy, and computer usage. Zuckerberg says the website was a prank and he never intended for so many people to see it. FaceMash is credited with being the predecessor to Facebook. The dot-com boom made Mark Cuban a billionaireCuban co-founded AudioNet with Todd Wagner in 1995 before it became Broadcast.com—a web app that allowed people to listen to sports commentary on their computers if they couldn't watch a game. In 1999, Yahoo bought Broadcast.com for $5.7B. By the time the market crashed, Cuban had already sold most of his stock in the company and had become a billionaire. CNBCView a simulation of the dark matter filaments that make up the cosmic webThe distribution of matter in the universe is not uniform, with interconnected threads of galaxy clusters surrounded by voids of empty space. Simulations of the universe show this is only possible within 13.8 billion years—the universe's age—if a foundational network of seeds—dark matter halos—were present to gravitationally attract visible matter. European Southern ObservatoryThe San Andreas Fault is an example of tectonic plates sliding past each otherThe transform boundary divides the opposing movements of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates, which create shear zones that distort and fracture rock. These movements produce shallow earthquakes as rocks are gradually displaced hundreds of miles. National Park ServiceThe scattering of light in the early universe prevents seeing the beginning of timeA "cosmic fog" of elementary particles in the early universe prevented light from traveling far before being absorbed. Only 380,000 years after the big bang, when the first atoms formed, was light free to travel and reach telescopes for study. UMBCThe deep web accounts for 90-95% of the internetWithin the Deep Web is the small and hidden Dark Web, which is inaccessible via traditional web browsers. Dark Web inhabitants are anonymous and use special software to access encrypted websites that can assist with both free speech and criminal activity. Explaining Tech Like You're FiveA separate agency within the Department of the Interior manages the education of Native Americans on reservationsThe Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), housed under the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, manages 183 elementary and secondary schools on 64 reservations across 23 states, serving around 40,000 Native American K–12 students outside state public systems. Bureau of Indian EducationSpeleothems are diverse mineral formations that form in air-filled cavesSpeleothems like stalactites and stalagmites form when water deposits minerals after a cave rises above the water table and fills with air. These formations preserve the mineral deposits, which may serve as climate proxies, for as long as a million years. US National Park ServiceA quick history of TencentThe Chinese tech firm grew from a late 1990's internet messaging service to a globally influential conglomerate. It was China's first company to hit the $500B valuation mark, and now enjoys massive reach via WeChat, WeBank, and its robust investment portfolio. BBC NewsDark matter detected in the cosmic webResearchers from Yonsei University detected dark matter on the cosmic web, a network of filaments that feed gas into galaxies. The detection was made possible by using the general theory of relativity to analyze gravitational microlensing around the Coma Cluster. This article explains the phenomenon and how the detection supports the presence of dark matter throughout the cosmic web. Space.comGoogle only sorts and searches a fraction of the overall internetThe "surface web," consisting of billions of public webpages, excludes nonindexed digital content, such as corporate intranets and email inboxes. A deeper layer, called the dark web, is also hidden and requires special software to access. BBCLagrange points offer energy-efficient orbits for telescopesLagrange Points are special locations where gravitational forces let spacecraft "park" without constant course corrections, making them ideal for science missions. NASA’s James Webb Telescope uses Lagrange Point 2 to stay aligned with Earth while orbiting the Sun. NASA
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