The deep web
The deep internet is the collection of all websites that are not included in the search engines. Some deep sites are unconventional markets that offer an unsettling array of products or services. Where you can buy or broker the purchase of illegal drugs, weapons, counterfeit goods, stolen credit cards, hacked data, digital currencies, malware, national identity cards or passports. You can contract with digital or forensic services, ranging from spam campaigns to DDoS attacks. Beginners can even buy e-books that explain how to attack websites, steal identities or otherwise profit from illegal activities.
But you can also use the deep internet to share information confidentially without identifying the identity and location of the sender through media outlets such as New York, the Washington Post, The Intercept and others, as well as by using search engines without compromising your privacy, or by subscribing to e-economy networks. Reliable as OpenBazaar.
Leave No Trace: Encryption and the Evolution of the Dark Web
Many Internet users use encryption - for example, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) - to keep Internet activities private. VPN connections typically adhere to the traditional standards of behavior for routing the Internet to (1) specify a path for the user's computer endpoints to link to a server hosting the content the user wants to access, and (2) two-way transmission of requests and response traffic along that path. . However, conventional routing is subject to traffic analysis, a monitoring technique that can reveal the sources of data traveling, destinations going and transmission times to third parties. Analysis of the metadata is associated with the collection of metadata, and we covered this topic in a previous post.
Tor networks are a commonly used solution to maintain anonymity and privacy and prevent traffic from being analyzed. Who uses the Tor system? Journalists, whistleblowers or dissidents, or any Internet users in general who do not wish their behavior or interests to be tracked by third parties. The Tor network serves many good purposes, but it also attracts Darknet users who wish to keep their activities or marketplaces secret and untraceable.
Similar to VPNs, Tor networks use virtual tunnels, but unlike VPNs, these tunnels don't connect clients directly to the servers. Instead, Tor clients create circuits through relay points in the Tor network. Tor circuits contain three important characteristics.
No relay point knows the complete path between the circuit endpoints.
Each connection between the relays is uniquely encrypted.
All links are short-lived to prevent monitoring of data behavior over time.
By using these features in their design, Tor's private network paths fail to analyze traffic and support the ability to publish content without revealing its identity or location.
Names of dark web sites
Unlike the human readable domain names we are used to when navigating the web, dark web sites use the names of Tor hidden services. These 16-character values are pre-attached to the onion top-level domain). (Any computer running Tor software can host a hidden service (for example, a web service). Users of dark web sites often find names outside of the package, for example, the pastebin app or the dark web content marketplace listings.
The Tor program running on the Tor host will create a local file directory, assign a port number to the service, and create a public and private key pair when configuring a hidden service. Tor software creates a 16-character hostname by computing the hash of that key pair's public-key, then converts the first 80 bits of that hash from binary to ASCII to make the resulting 16 characters conform to the Namesystem Protocol "character number link" requirements Domains (DNS).
Visitors to the dark web do not use the DNS to resolve domain names (.onion) for Internet Protocol (IP) addresses - instead, the solution is using a completely separate, hidden service protocol. This protocol helps to know the existence of such services and helps customers find them, while maintaining anonymity or the identity of the site (Internet Protocol address) for both the client and the service. Both the customer and the hidden service host have effective roles in this process.
First, the Tor host “announces” a hidden service by creating a service descriptor and publishing it to the distributed service directory. This descriptor contains the public key for the hidden service and a list of Tor nodes that will act as entry points, and trusted brokers for the hidden service. Next, the Tor host creates links to the inserted entry points. Any Tor client wishing to connect to the stealth service can now do so through the specified entry points.
To link to a hidden service, the Tor application client sends a directory service query to the service descriptor. It randomly chooses an entry point from the list in the service descriptor. Then it randomly chooses the meeting point in the Tor network, and it links anonymously to the chosen entry point through the convergence point, and transmits a message to the hidden service via the entry point as well. This message contains the rendezvous identity encrypted with the stealth service's public key and the materials to initiate the "handshake" encryption.
The hidden service also creates another connection to the specified meeting point and sends a message that completes the encrypted connection confirmation. At this point, the client and the hidden service create a private network path that is resistant to surveillance - and they can exchange data confidentially and anonymously.
Why are all dark websites in .onion top level domain?
Onion top-level domain is reserved for hidden service names. Contrary to popular belief, ICANN has not delegated the onion domain (.) From the public root of the DNS. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has defined the .onion domain as a top-level domain designated for a special purpose (in RFC 7686) to be used in the implementation of a service without identification and with highly confidential characteristics, which have been deemed "new functions required" (in RFC 6761)
Can I visit the dark web? Should I do this
You may wish to use the Tor system to take advantage of some dark web services. Although you may benefit from the possibility of enhancing your anonymity on the dark web, this will never be a reason to engage in illegal activities.