WHAT IS TOR? WHAT IS DEEP WEB? WHAT IS DARK WEB? ALL EXPLAINED!

WHAT IS TOR

To understand the intricacies of the Dark Web and its many uses and problems, it is first necessary to understand TOR. This article will mainly touch upon the topic and will be an introductory guide to Tor.

INTRODUCTION

In simple words, TOR is the short form of The Onion Router. It is a free of cost software that enables the user to communicate anonymously. It can channel Internet traffic through a worldwide network of seven thousand plus free relays, which can keep the location, as well as usage of the user, anonymous. It can keep you safe and can make it difficult to trace you or your Internet activity.

So, TOR is a service that allows its users to browse the Internet, send IMs, chat and socialize but anonymously. What makes it different than other forms of the Internet is that it delivers what it promises. The primary purpose of TOR is to keep the personal privacy of the users secure and allow them a free space to conduct their affairs without any form of monitoring or surveillance. It is thus a mode of confidential communication.

You must have noticed the icon of the logo of TOR - it is an onion. This is no coincidence. The onion portrays the system correctly; as the form of routing that is done by TOR is called onion routing. It is the encryption of communication protocol stack in the application layer, one under another, thus, forming an onion-like structure. Tor can encrypt almost all major types of data such as IP address, and forward it through a circuit of various randomly selected relays where each relay decrypts only one layer and forwards the remaining ahead. The final layer is decoded at the destination, and thus the information received is concealed and so is the sender's IP address.

In general terms, Tor is also called a browser that is used to browse Dark Web. In the next section of this article let us have a look at what is Dark Web or Dark Net and how is it different from Surface Web as well as Deep Web.

What is the Dark Web?

As explained in the last section of this article, Tor is used to access locations on the Dark Web. However, to understand the nature of the Dark Web, it is necessary to figure out what is Surface Web and what is Deep Web. So, let us have a look at these two terms first.

Surface Web:

Surface Web is basically whatever your notions of the Web are. It includes social networking sites, shopping sites, search engines, news media, etc. Almost every site that you can access without any additional settings except a regular web browser and active Internet connection is on Surface Web.

A basic definition of Surface Web is as follows - It is a web made of various fixed and static pages. These pages are not dependent on a database for content. However, some sites like amazon.com do have connections with the deep web in the form of database. The pages on static web stay on a server waiting for users to retrieve them. Thus, these pages are nothing but HTML files that are static and whose content never change. To update the pages, it is necessary to replace the HTML file of the page.

All websites with domains such as. .com, .in, .uk, .org, co.in, .net, etc are Surface Website sites.

You must have seen various pictures on the Internet representing Surface web and Deep web. One of the most commonly used pictures to represent the above equation is the picture of an iceberg- where the iceberg above the surface of water represents the surface web while the iceberg below the surface represents deep/dark web Like below figure. Let us now have a look at what Deep Web is.

Deep Web

A simple definition of the Deep Web is all the pages that a search engine cannot find. i.e. these pages are not indexed by the databases of the search engines. There exist a variety of reasons why a search engine cannot access the Deep Web pages. But before we go there, let us first have a close look at Deep Web.

Deep Web is the online database and dynamic web pages that a standard search engine like Google or Yahoo cannot access. It is the content and data behind HTML forms. Like Surface web, the Deep web too has many applications such as email, online banking, chat rooms, etc. There are also services such as video chat rooms, various paid services, video on demand, etc.

It is estimated that the Deep Web is almost 400 to 500 times larger than the Surface Web. This means it has more than eight petabytes. Compare this with the nineteen terabytes of data present on the Surface Web, and you will realize how huge the Deep Web is.

Certain search engines can access Deep Webs. Some of them include Intent, DeepPeep, Deep Web Technologies, Ahmia.fi, and Scirus, etc. Invisible Web or Deep Web is often confused with Dark Web; however, both these terms are different and refer to different things. While it is legal to access information off Deep Web almost all the time, it is not the case with Dark Web. In the next section let us have a look at the Dark Web.

Dark Web

As said earlier, the Dark Web is often confused with Deep Web thanks to the hidden nature of both the Webs. However, Deep Web and Dark Web are two different things.

It is possible to say that the Dark Web is a part of Deep Web, as standard search engines cannot access it as well. However, it is different than Deep Web as the content on Dark Web is often hidden deliberately. It is a network of sites that can be accessed but are hosted anonymously. These sites are inaccessible to standard browsers and browser techniques and often require special software.

The Dark Web is an almost untraceable worldwide network that has many uses, which may or may not be legal. The sites on Dark Web are accessible to only those who know what they are looking f0r.

The main motive of the Dark Web is anonymity and privacy. This anonymity is Dark Web's boon as well as a curse. The anonymous veil of the Dark Web is often used to conduct a variety of illicit and illegal activities, which is why the Dark Web is so notorious. This notoriety is often carried forward to Deep Web, making it a stigmatized concept as well. However, as made clear above, both the Webs are two different entities. The Deep Web is a simple collection of databases that is not indexed by standard search engines, while the Dark Web is an encrypted network among TOR servers and users. It is just a tiny, albeit very famous part of the Deep Web. In a single line- all Dark Web is Deep Web, however not all Deep Web is Dark Web.

The Dark Web is a minuscule part of the Deep Web; it is estimated that it does not even form 0.5% of the Deep Web. However, it is highly popular thanks to its various anonymous and private markets that often trade in illegal products.

Now that you know what Deep Web and Dark Web are, you must be wondering why they exist and whether they are needed. Let us have a look at this question. : CLICK HERE