The Dark Alleys of the Internet

Internet has gradually become a major need of modern man. A vast number of people depend on the world wide web to carryout their daily chores. Internet in general is accessible to anyone with a computer. However there are aspects of the internet that are unreachable to the average citizen. A very few know about the existence of such a dimension of the so called internet. There are deep and darker places hidden from the surface web, hidden from the reach of the general public and websites that cannot be contained by any sort of cyber law. I've been meaning to share this knowledge for a while now but I chose not to upon a moral conflict within myself. So let me just say you and you alone are responsible for your actions.

There exists a much bigger part of the internet known as the deep web, hidden web, dark net or sometimes referred to as the under net. These terms refer to websites that are not listed in normal search engines. The content of the deep web is unreachable to the web crawlers of the usual search tools of Google, Yahoo etc... Hence it is impossible to monitor the activity of sites in the dark net. This opens up endless opportunities for good as well as for bad.

If you want to get something stolen or someone killed, there are websites in the deep web that provide such services for a fee. There are sites from where one could purchase almost anything, from weapons to drugs. Terrorist organizations use the dark net for communication. Child pornography is a common interest among the regular users of the deep web. Apart from these perverse applications of the under net, there are many uses of it too. Many activists and journalists share their ideas with the world while enjoying complete anonymity. There is endless knowledge in the depth of the internet.

According to a study in 2004, the deep web contained approximately 7, 500 TB worth of data. This is nearly 395 times larger than the 19 TB of data on the surface web. These figures are sure to have risen if a study is conducted today. The sites of the dark net contains random content that are included in self contained, simple pages. This makes it even harder for search engines to detect their existence. The url of a dark net website would have a string of alpha numerals that ends with a .onion. For instance www.kpds8dsw.onion could be the address of a hidden website.

Hidden websites are not accessible through normal web browsers. There are specialized browsers for this purpose that ensures anonymity. My personal favorite is the Tor Browser. Follow the secure link to download the Tor browser bundle if you are interested in taking a peek at the deep web at your own risk.

kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion is a popular page to start your hidden web expeditions. You could also 
obtain a list of working hidden webs by googling "onion sites".