Just the name makes one shudder, as if a Sith lord dwells in the depths of the internet to pop up at any moment and steal your data. Despite the fantasies, the Dark Web is not that dark and accessing it is not complicated. VPN, Tor, onion you don’t know any of this? Then you’ve come to the right place to start.
? What is the difference between the Dark Web and the Deep Web?
Before getting to the heart of the matter, you have to know the difference between the three parts of the Internet:
- The Clear Web, which is the visible layer of the Internet. This is what we see when doing a Google search for watching cat videos on YouTube. From a technical point of view, the Clear Web defines the content that is indexed and displayed by the various search engines like Google. However, it only represents about 4% of the total data on the Internet.
- The Deep Web, which represents the part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines. It contains very boring private databases, such as medical records, tax information or university data. All this represents… 90% of internet data. Just that. Although it often hides behind passwords, the Deep Web remains accessible if you know what you are looking for.
- The Dark Web, which interests us today, represents about 6% of the Internet. It is a very paradoxical place: on the one hand it serves as a meeting place for drug traffickers, computer hackers or even contract killers. On the other hand, because of the anonymity and protection it offers, this corner of the internet is a refuge for political opponents, journalists and whistleblowers, but also the intelligence services of the world. entire.
As you will have understood, confidentiality and anonymity are the fundamental values there and the Dark Web can be useful for all those who wish to protect their privacy. Far from the gigantic Google server centers, the Dark Web is made up of a swarm of scattered servers, with more or less random stability and which can only be accessed by onion links.
⚠️ Is the Dark Web dangerous?
No, as such the Dark Web is not dangerous. It’s just 0s and 1s like any network or computer program. Just like on the Internet, you can browse it by taking very simple precautions, such as not trusting links sent by a stranger or not communicating your credit card information to an unverified organization.
On the other hand, it’s a bit like the Mos Eisley of the Internet: very unsavory people hang around there. It serves as their base camp for all kinds of illegal operations, as mentioned before, for example to buy boxes there to steal any car by dismantling the headlights.
You will not be the victim of hackers by going to the Dark Web, on the contrary, you will be more protected for reasons that we will explain later. On the other hand, if you or a company that holds your information has been the victim of a computer attack, that is where the stolen information will end up. Hackers regularly sell all kinds of data. For example, Acer confirmed the hacking on March 8 of 160 GB of sensitive data, put up for sale on the dark web. Moreover, given the number of regular attacks against companies, it is not crazy to imagine that some of your information is on it. How to know if your personal data has leaked on the dark web? By reading the article of course.
Read: STALKER 2: Russian hackers blackmail Ukrainian studio GSC Game World
Similarly, the groups of pirates currently raging on the Internet generally operate by blackmail. Against the payment of a ransom, hackers will not release the stolen data. This is what happened in the following case: hackers released photos of naked patients to blackmail a hospital that refused to pay a ransom. To distribute these photos, they have no place to do it except the Dark Web, because no known social network or website would accept to host this content. If a user were to post stolen information, they would be hit with the swift ban hammer and the content promptly deleted. In the hypothetical case where a general public site agrees to maintain this kind of information online, it will itself quickly be hit with a delisting by search engines: “there is always a bigger fish” said Qui-Gon Jinn. By doing so, the search engines would tip this site over to the side of the Dark Web (of the Force).
? What is an onion bond?
As everything is decentralized on the Dark Web, there are no crawlers to gather the information. Even the addresses of the sites are very different from those to which we are accustomed.
On the Clear Web, to access a site like YouTube for example, just write the URL starting with www. in the address bar or search for the site using a search engine. On the Dark Web, it’s less easy: you have to know the exact URL of the site, which comes in the form of a random sequence of numbers and letters, followed by a .onion extension instead of the traditional . com or .fr. Onion links are specific to the Dark Web and can only be accessed through Tor, which we’ll get to shortly.
? Security: always use a VPN
First security rule: Install a VPN before attempting to access the Dark Web. For what ? The law has a long arm and you will want to put all the chances on your side so that your anonymity is guaranteed. If it is technically not illegal to go to this part of the internet, it is only on the condition that you do not engage in activities there that are reprehensible by law.
If this is not your case and you just want to visit the Dark Web for digital tourism, you can of course skip this step.
Many free options are available such as Proton or Windscribe, but their reliability is not foolproof. Indeed, nothing is free, and some free VPNs have been reported to resell their users’ personal data. It will therefore be better to trust our comparison of paid VPNs, which guarantee better security.
? Tor, the dark web’s favorite browser
Second safety rule: never use your default browser to search for information on the Dark Web. Popular browsers like Chrome, Opera or Firefox have tracking technologies that make you visible on the authorities’ radar. Recently, you were told that the EU wants to spy on the entire web, emails and messaging using AI. Fortunately, a browser exists to avoid prying eyes.
Tor is the abbreviation of “The Onion Router”. It is a free and free software that allows to communicate anonymously. It directs Internet traffic through a free, global, voluntary overlay network of more than seven thousand relays.
To access the Dark Web on Windows, Mac, Linux or Android, you will need to download the Tor browser ici. Follow the steps without fear, the installer will not try at any step to install malware or intrusive antivirus, as is the case with many free programs.
Tor is short for “The Onion Router”. It is a free and open-source software that allows you to browse the Internet anonymously. It directs Internet traffic through a free, global, voluntary overlay network of more than seven thousand relays. It thus prevents websites from tracking you and allows a certain anonymity. Obviously, navigation will be a little slower as a result. We therefore do not recommend that you use Tor as a browser in everyday life, unless you are very concerned about your privacy on the Internet.
Tor will be particularly easy to use for regulars of Firefox since it is based on this browser and regularly updated with the latest version of Firefox. However, there are small differences:
- Tor encrypts your browsing data.
- Tor automatically deletes your history after each session.
- Tor offers many options in how it connects to the internet.
To read: Facebook, Instagram: how to delete your number from the database?
?What to do once Tor is installed?
Once Tor is installed, the browser will prompt you to log in directly, which will be fine for most without configuration. To skip this step next time, check the “Always connect automatically” box.
Now Tor offers you to use the browser in English to protect your privacy. And yes, the internet is a territory that favors speakers of the language of Shakespeare. It’s not a big deal if you don’t want to use Tor in English, however all interactions and sites will be in English on the addresses you visit, so you might as well start now, especially since it offers additional security .
You are now in front of the Tor home page, with the DuckGogo search bar working like any search engine. You are now theoretically on the Dark Web: you have access to all websites, both those referenced by the major search engines and those accessible only by an onion link.
To read: YouTube: how to activate dark mode?
?dark.fail, the base camp of the Dark Web
The best start to safe browsing on the Dark Web is dark.fail, accessible ici. This site lists the onion links of the most useful Dark Web sites and assures you of their authenticity. Indeed, scammers prowl the Dark Web in order to steal cryptocurrencies. Typically these operate by sending a link to a market which is really just a clone where they can steal sensitive information you enter into it, such as passwords to the real market.
As you can see if you clicked on this link, you can access dark.fail from the Clear Web. This is precisely its advantage: dark.fail maintains an easily accessible address that does not change, whereas other directories have onion links that change regularly. However, the site recommends imperatively using its onion link once on the site, available by clicking to the right of the address bar on the purple button “onion available”.
So the easiest way for any seasoned Dark Web browser is to set dark.fail as Tor’s homepage instead of DuckGogo. To do this, go to:
- The settings to the right of the Tor address bar
- then in Settings, fourth button from the bottom
- then in Home, second tab from the top
- Homepage & new windows, click on custom URL and now enter “dark.fail” in the window that just opened there.
Fortunately, if you cannot find the site you are looking for, other directories are themselves listed on dark.fail.
Once on dark.fail, you now have the freedom to explore onion links and the entire Dark Web. You will notice that most of the links available will take you to marketplaces with illegal content. But you can also find archivecaslytosk there, which allows you to save the content of a web page at a given time forever.
However, be careful, when you get the link of a site elsewhere than on dark.fail, it may be a phishing attempt. In general, pay even more attention than on the “normal” Web and everything should be fine.
