Question

Describe how one supposedly gains access to information on the Dark Web and Deep Web. Describe Onion Routing and how it applies to the Dark Web.

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Answer 1

The information provided below is only for educational purposes. Hacking is illegal, crime, unofficial, informal, and is against law. Any hacking activities to be carried out on a system, computer, device, mobile device, server, network, website, etc. must require written authorization of the owner of the system, computer, network, server, etc., providing his/her permission to do so for a genuine reason, in a written statement with his/her authorization clearly defined and stated in it. Please note that most of the network traffic, content, websites, information, data, communications, and transactions available and carried out on the Dark Web and Deep Web are illegal and unlawful and are bad and crime on the users' part. Deep web content may not mostly be illegal as its content are available behind a paywall or would require sign-in details such as username and password for authentication purpose. The deep web may refer to content its owners have blocked web crawlers from indexing them, as these content could be genuine, authentic, legitimate, and could be serving only internally specific to a company, an organization, or a network. Even most of the dark web is used not used for illicit intentions and purposes in spite of its notorious and negative name.

How one supposedly gains access to information on the Dark Web and Deep Web:
Please note, the dark web is only a part of the deep web. One could access information on the Dark Web and Deep Web using the Onion Routing technique, specifically and technically using software such as The Onion Router (TOR) web browser accessing anything on the Internet available on the deep web that is not indexed by, and, hence, not accessible through a search engine such as Google. Both, dark and deep web could be accessed through the TOR web browser software using it and accessing such a web anonymously. Here, in this example of using the TOR web browser, the users' web page requests are routed by the TOR browser through a series of proxy servers that are operated and managed by volunteers in thousands, worldwide, rendering users' IP address untraceable and unidentifiable. The TOR web browser functions like magic. The outcome of using the TOR browser with its network is like a dark web that is unreliable, unpredictable, and very slow. Also, even dark web search engines exist. There are dark web sites for surfing, browsing, and exploring. These websites end with .onion unlike .com, or .co, indicating it is a special-use Top-Level Domain (TLD) suffix that is designated with an anonymous hidden service that can be reached through the TOR network. The only web browser software that has appropriate proxy settings will be able to access these websites.

Using TOR, which uses the onion routing technique that encrypts data which is then gets transmitted through a series of network nodes that are called onion routers. Each router "peels" away from a single layer, that uncovers the data's or the message's next destination. Thus, the sender or the source computer remains anonymous, as each intermediary is aware of only the location of the immediately preceding and succeeding nodes.

Onion Routing:
It is a method to communicate anonymously over a computer network, such as the public Internet. Layers of encryption are used to encapsulate messages to be communicated. As an analogy, the layers of an onion. It is basically an Internet-based system preventing eavesdropping, sniffing, and traffic analysis breaches and attacks. It protects users' messages and communications from tracking and surveillance. It is used for circumventing or bypassing censorship. It thus is basically used for security and specifically to provide confidentiality, integrity, privacy, availability, accessibility, and anonymity online. It is a significant technological technique. It is used to hide information, data, messages, or communications. An example of a tool or software using Onion Routing is The Onion Router (TOR) web browser.

How Onion Routing applies to the Dark Web:
Using the onion routing technique, one could access the Dark web safely, securely, with privacy, anonymity, and freedom online, without being monitored and without being under surveillance. However, onion routing can be also be misused by bad people, actors, attackers, or hackers to navigate the underground illegal and hidden Internet to access illegal content, websites, files, carry out transactions, communications, etc., on the Dark Web.