Aren’t you curious about the Dark underbelly of our society? Don’t you want to wander into the dim lit alleys of human mind in search for truth? Don’t you want to know the unknown? Then welcome to the Deep Web, part of web that you cannot access. What is the Deep Web?
Internet is divided into two parts : the Surface web and the Deep web. Surface web is what we all surf, particularly the visible part of the web, one which can be accessed by search engines. No matter how large it may seem, surface web is just the tip of the iceberg. Search engines use ‘spiders’ (virtual ones :P) to bring out the information from the internet and they can access meager 0.03% of the overall web. Do you still think that you know the internet? Now the rest of the web that can’t be accessed through search engines or which is basically hidden constitutes the Deep Web. Deep web in a layman’s language represents the shadow of our society. It is anonymous, It is powerful, It is dangerous.
No one knows how big is the Deep web, perhaps hundreds or thousands of times bigger than the surface web, but it is growing exponentially. It is an endless repository of information which is ‘mind boggling’ in nature. Engineering databases, financial informations of all kinds, medical papers, leaked data, classified materials, conspiracies, hacking tools. Activists, whistleblowers, hackers and various kind of people who demand anonymity but still want the world to see the truth, hide their data in there. It is a shadow land for untapped potential and with a bit of skill one can illuminate the valuable information that is archived.
The Dark Side :
Deep Web cannot be accessed through normal browsers since it requires a special kind of software, known as ***. It connects the user to the Deep web. It keeps the user anonymous and makes the work of tracking an individual nearly impossible. “Give a man a mask and he will show his true self”. One can find sites for trading of illegal goods, online drug markets like Silkroad, child pornography, audience for mutilation and bestiality fetishes, human trafficking, sale of weapons, market of exotic animals and copyrighted materials, videos and sites for human experiments, dumps of stolen credit card and online banking account details, details and live feeds of underground death matches. There are assasins and hackers for hire too. Criminal syndicates too communicate there! It is also scrutanised by secret services. It pries open the dreadful content of human desires in their full glory.
The Light Side :
Deep web like everything has its ominous overtones but not everything out there is threatening. It is home to various whistle blowing sites and sites which provide safer meeting grounds for political activists or any body else who finds himself on the fringes of the society. Dark web is for any body who wants to speak the truth but is afraid of his safety. In an age where NSA is spying everybodies activities on net, Deep web provides a respite, an anonymous means to surf the web. People living under opressive regimes are able to securely communicate with like minded individuals. Wikileaks used to extract their data from deep web, this proves how critically important Deep web is. It has specific information that one may use to expand her buisness. Deep web is no place for Noobs, if one knows how to navigate through it, it can be one’s own Pandora’s box.
How To access Deep Web:
Deep web sites have .onion extension in their end, thus are sometimes called onion sites. Unlike surface web, deep web is cluttered and somewhat unorganised, there is no powerful search engine like Google and one must know specifically what he/she is looking for. The websites are not as appealing as they are on the surface web and may take endless minutes to load. To access Deep web one has to first download *** browser bundle. After installing the software open it and start by visiting “The Hidden Wiki”. It will list of .onion sites according to their categories. Surf accordingly. Once you enter don’t act like a Noob. Don’t download, upload anything or give any information that may compromise your identity. The place is den of elite hackers, though Tor provides you a very safe enviornment. Surf Safe. The deep web is an enigmatic place, though full of potholes- it has answers to questions that one may never dare to ask. It is full of untapped potential, and thus you can always try to take its negativity with a pinch of salt and see how it transforms the way you look at the world of internet!
Picture Credits- Google images
By Bhanu Sharma
