{"id":2247,"date":"2020-01-04T09:01:38","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T14:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timothydimoff.com\/?p=2247"},"modified":"2020-01-29T09:23:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T14:23:54","slug":"what-is-the-dark-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timothydimoff.com\/2020\/01\/04\/what-is-the-dark-web\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Dark Web?"},"content":{"rendered":"

October is a cybersecurity month. When deciding what to write about, I recalled a surprising fact: Most people have not heard of the \u201cdark web.\u201d It is out there, though, and it\u2019s essential to know where it resides and why it is considered \u201cdark\u201d in nature. Once you grasp an understanding of the dark web, there are things you can do to prevent becoming a victim of cybercrime.<\/p>\n

3 Layers Down<\/h2>\n

To understand what the dark web is, the first thing to know is there are mostly three layers to the world wide web (www):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Surface Web<\/li>\n
  2. Deep Web<\/li>\n
  3. Dark Web<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    1. Surface Web<\/h3>\n

    This is the web the everyday person uses on their smart devices and personal computers. The sites accessed on the surface web have been indexed by DNS (domain name servers) web servers that provide specific pages to a web browser by resolving an alphanumeric web address (e.g., www.timothydimoff.com<\/a><\/u>) to the website\u2019s actual IP address. This is, in reality, a 14 digit numeric location on a web server structured the following way \u201c1111.2222.3333.44\u201d.<\/p>\n

    The easiest way to understand this concept is to understand what happens when you enter in directions in a car. When an address is registered, the actual data being utilized by the GPS technology is the global coordinates<\/a><\/u> for the address (e.g., longitude, latitude). So, your Garmin, for example, allows you to enter in 123 Main Street, Akron, OH, but identifies the numerical longitude and latitude to build directions to the specific location based upon the coordinates where you are currently located.<\/p>\n

    The most important thing to note about the surface web is that only websites that have been indexed by a web server are accessible to the public. In other words, the website\u2019s IP address is fully disclosed to world wide web servers, enabling the site to be searched by mainstream search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) by anyone with an internet-ready device.<\/p>\n

    2. Deep Web<\/h3>\n

    The next layer down is called the deep web. It is often confused with the dark web, but that\u2019s because it is not readily accessible to the public at large. It consists of a multitude of online data points stored on web servers, ultimately connected to various databases. Here not all websites are indexed, and when reached, the sites are often password-protected, blocking user access to backend databases. Your eyes might be glazing over right now, so think of it as eating in a restaurant.<\/p>\n

    You are served the food you ordered (= surface web), but you are not allowed in the kitchen or inside the delivery trucks that brought the ingredients that were used to create the food on the plate (= deep web). What is important to you is the food you are served. You know it was cooked in the kitchen because the food was delivered to the restaurant, but you are not privy to the whole process.<\/p>\n

    This also accounts for why no one knows how big the deep web is today, but it is estimated to be 400 to 550 times bigger<\/a><\/u> than the surface web. In other words, what you see on the surface web is a small representation of information\/data that is visible to the public at large. But it is essential to note the deep web isn\u2019t intentionally \u201chidden\u201d from you. This is where the dark web comes into play.<\/p>\n

    3. Dark Web<\/h3>\n

    Deliberately hidden or inaccessible locations on the internet constitute a small portion of the world wide web called the dark web (aka \u201cdarknet\u201d).<\/p>\n

    These locations are the result of<\/a><\/u>:<\/p>\n