What's on the Dark Web? These are the top 5 sites in 2021
When most of us think of the Dark Web, our mind goes straight to the worst-case scenarios. We think of assassins, poison, illegal drugs and creepy red room videos. But these hidden corners of the internet aren’t all darkness and depravity.
You might not know this, but the Dark Web has a lot to offer. You can find educational resources and even professional news organizations. That’s mainly because it focuses on privacy and encryption, attracting groups that want to maintain their internet presence despite censorship crackdowns.
It isn’t very easy, but we’re here to break it all down. First of all, you have to understand precisely what Dark Web means. Thanks to our sponsor ExpressVPN, here’s how the Dark Web can help you — and which websites you’ll find there.
Dark Web 101
First, the Dark Web is a part of the deep web. That’s the part of the internet you can’t access through regular search engines. You need to do some extra work to find it in the first place.
So, why is it so hard to access? That’s because the Dark Web is invisible to search engine spiders.
(In case you didn’t know, search engines are run by automated tools called spiders, which crawl around the internet, find interesting pages and throw them into your search results. But these spiders only scan the world wide web, a.k.a. the “surface web.”)
The Deep Web is everything that the spiders don’t find. Within that category lies the Dark Web. That’s content that website creators deliberately choose to conceal from search engine spiders.
According to the Journal of Electronic Publishing, you can find anywhere from 400 to 550 times more public information on the deep web than on the surface web.
How to access resources on the Dark Web
To find these sites, you need to install a layered proxy network like Tor Browser. All you need to know is that this browser encrypts your data and runs it through several servers in different locations. It focuses on your privacy; it’s all about making you hard to trace.
This is an appealing option for people who bristle at the thought of Big Tech surveillance. (In fact, we recently ran a survey and found that 86% of respondents are sick of tech companies sticking their noses in our business.)
What is the Dark Web? How to access it and what you'll find
When data breaches and major hacks happen, you probably hear the term “Dark Web marketplaces” get thrown around. But what is the Dark Web anyway and why are its marketplaces so important to hackers?
Simply put, the Dark Web is part of the internet that cannot be easily accessed or visited. Dark Web sites aren’t registered with search engines and are often encrypted for maximum privacy. You can only access some of these websites with the help of a special, anonymized browser.
How to tell the dark web from the deep web
You’ve heard about the “dark web” and the “deep web,” but you aren’t exactly sure what they are, nor what the difference is between them. We’ll help you understand these two parts of the Internet, and therefore help you avoid the shadier parts of the dark web —particularly if you search the web privately.