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All about the Deep Web: Pros & Cons

All about the Deep Web: Pros & Cons

Deep Web – kinda surprised! Bit of a different style of tutorial here, but I believe that anonymity is a big part of security and its important to know about it for beginners …

/*DISCLAIMER*/

I do not condone criminal activity on the internet nor is this tutorial intended to help those reading it commit crime, purchase illegal materials etc. What you do in your own time is no concern of mine, but the deep web is a valuable tool and provides valuable services for those in oppressive regimes and activists and whistle blowers to name but a few.

So, you want to explore the deep web, eh? Well that’s awesome! The deep web is a fantastic tool and is one of the most misunderstood tools out there. It helps thousands of people around the world speak freely…. Among other things. Now whilst I don’t agree with some of the services out there, I think it’s very important that people understand how to be anonymous online for their own safety. So as the disclaimer says this is a tutorial and is for educational purposes only.

What is the deep web?

Quite simply, the deep web is the un-indexed part of the World Wide Web. It cannot be found on a regular search engine, and you need to follow specific procedures and use specific tools in order to access it. A common analogy is that the web is like an ice-berg you only see 10% (Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, pictures of cats etc.) the other 90% is below the surface (let you imagination go wild here ).

What is it for and how does it work? 

Well the main purpose of the deep web is anonymity. It allows users to surf and get information, and use online services whilst protecting their anonymity to anyone trying to identify them. This anonymity is achieved by using the Tor Network. The Tor Network works by routing the traffic through a series of encrypted connections through the Tor relay nodes. This makes the traffic very hard to track (although not impossible).

The deep web, and the Tor network in particular have been instrumental in allowing whistle blowers to get important information out to the public. It allows to people in oppressive regimes have freedom of speech with little of fear of being carted off by their government. The importance of it really cannot be overstated.

What is the difference between the deep web and the dark web? 

We must be careful to distinguish between the deep web and the dark web. The dark web is a subsection of the deep web where many nefarious activities are carried out (hackers for hire, hitmen, drug market places, carding sites, and loads of other nasty shit). The two are DIFFERENT and this tutorial it not about the dark web. If you’re interested to know more on the differences of two, read this tutorial.

How do I get in on this sweet anonymity? 

Whilst you can use the command line to set up a SOCKS proxy to direct traffic through Tor for an application that you want to run, it is far easier to use the Tor browser. This is a browser created by the Tor Project and it will run all the traffic through Tor (naturally). The browser also comes with a few additional handy add-ons including https everywhere (this will force https encryption everywhere it can – very important) and one that disables JavaScript (the name escapes me at this time but it is very important to avoid malicious scripts)

In terms of navigating, many of the sites on the deep web require you to have specific URL’s to access them, and are part of the .onion domain. This goes for both dark net sites and regular deep web sites. You can find the links to these sites on forums like reddit if you need a good place to start. There are also listing sites on the deep web too – just be aware of what you are clicking on though.

How do I stay safe? 

So, how do you stay safe on the deep web? Well if you’re using some of the more legitimate sites out there such as mailing sites, forums, and banking, the Tor browser and an up-to-date anti-virus should be all you need. However, if you need to pay for anything out there for the love of god do not pay with anything except bitcoin. Because of the nefarious shit that goes down on the deep web, you would be a moron to put your actual credentials on there. But hey that’s just my opinion. If you want further payment security you could also look into bitcoin tumbling but that’s for you to read up on.

Another thing to look into would be using the Tails OS. You boot this from a disk and it pushes everything through Tor. It also refuses to write anything to the drive so it’s one of the best ways to stay safe. I would recommend it.

Are the stories true?

You only have to do a search on YouTube for the deep web to get a shit load of fucking horror stories about people who have viewed red rooms or have pissed people off and have ended up coming home to see their families murdered, their bank accounts emptied blah blah blah…

Is this true? Well the truth is I have absolutely no idea, but it’s always best to try and not piss people off. Also, use your initiative people, if something looks sketchy as hell, then it probably is.

Will the NSA / GCHQ be looking over my shoulder? 

All about the Deep Web: Pros & Cons

Sadly, the general consensus is that if you have downloaded Tor or Tails, then you’re probably on a list somewhere. Is this true? Go knows but it is certainly a possibility. Just remember that neither of these tools are illegal and the more people that are on these lists the better…

Tools and further Information

If you guys are interested in learning more, then the following videos will be of great use to you:

“Don’t Fuck It Up” – Zoz Brooks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1q4Ir2J8P8

“Touring the Dark Side of the Internet” – Grifter & Metacortex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To5yarfAg_E

The Tor Project –

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

Tails –

https://tails.boum.org/

EFF (There is some useful information about the deep web and Tor here ) –

https://www.eff.org/

Guerrilla Mail (I didnt talk about this but it’s a very useful tool for anonymity)

https://www.guerrillamail.com/

I hope you guys find it useful. If any of the more savvy users out there notice any issues with what I have written please do let me know. I am always open to constructive criticism!

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