Deepweb, Darkweb, Shadow Web And Everything In Between
The internet is endless, there is just no limit to what you can find on the internet, even if you type the stupidest word or query you can think of, the internet has answers even for those. We can compare the internet to an ocean, or, to put it simply, the internet is a digital ocean.
The surface of the digital ocean is what we call the surface web, then there is the deep web. Sites on the deep web are very common even if you don’t know or may not be aware of them, chances are you access them often.
When you cross the boundary and go even deeper into the digital ocean, you come across the darker part of the internet that not many people can access, it is known as the dark web. The dark web has its dangers, but accessing sites on the dark web is not illegal. Finally, the bottomless part of the digital ocean that only a handful of people know how to access and is much debated about is the shadow web. The shadow web is said to be even darker and more sinister than the dark web.
In this blog, we are going to talk about the surface web, deep web, dark web, shadow web and everything in between & around it.
What Is The Surface Web?
The surface web is where you commonly surf the internet, and the answers to your queries are easily available. You don’t need to make an account and set a password to keep anything secure because the information is nothing overly explicit, non-consensual or sensitive. All the data that you can access easily on your web browser without pulling any shenanigans, is all surface web.
As per Wikipedia, the surface web consists of only 10 percent of the information that is on the internet. The Surface Web is made with a collection of public Web pages on a server accessible by any search engine.
The data on the surface web is readily available, hence there is a level of obscenity or grotesqueness etc. monitored since all the pages of content are indexed.
What Is The Deep Web?
The deep web is the part of the internet that can access only after signing in, for example, your bank account, webmail, profiles, web forums, and some functions of social media like Facebook. You can call the deep web, the hidden part of the internet, as it consists of those web pages that are not indexed and to access those web pages you need their URL (uniform resource locator).
The term deep web was coined in 2001 by a computer scientist named Michael K. Bergman. The deep web is also known as the hidden or invisible web.
Many sites don’t bother registering themselves on the search engine because they want to stay hidden. Access to those hidden sites is only for those people who know about them, you can’t find such sites floating around on the surface web.
What Is Dark Web?
People often confuse the dark web with the deep web because the web pages or sites that are on the dark web are not indexed, just like the deep web. But, there is a huge difference between both of them. You need the URL of the page, and you need to log in with your password each time you access the pages or sites on the deep web. Even though the dark web is similar, the difference is that you can access the deep web on your regular browser while the dark web can not be accessed without TOR (The onion router).
Surfing the dark web is not illegal, and you may find many useful websites to obtain information that you may not get on the surface web. Hackers and cybersecurity service providers typically lurk on the dark web because it is their favourite place to attain information.
Now let’s talk about TOR, the onion router. You must be wondering why it’s named after onion? Well, first, TOR is a free and open-source software (FOSS). People who want to access the darknet, use TOR to stay anonymous and get multilayered protection.
This image is an example of “onion routing” in which there are multiple nodes or servers, which means there are multiple IP addresses, making it nearly impossible to track a user.
In terms of content, the dark web is sinister and many illegal activities are carried out here on a large scale, people surf unimaginable things here like the red room activities, child pornography, live homicide, etc. Although red rooms are allegedly conceptual, many have claimed to come across genuine red rooms with a gruesome sight.
What Is The Shadow Web?
Apparently, there is a deeper level even darker than the darknet, it is known as the shadow web. People who claim to have visited the shadow net have stated that things on the shadow net or shadow web are on par with the dark web. How much truth stands in these claims, we can’t really say because the shadow web, as the name indicates, has remained in the shadows
No one exactly knows how to access the shadow web, or even if one gets access, they are unaware that they are on the shadow web.
True or not, the concept of the shadow web is chilling in itself, as the claims say that the dark web holds only 10% gore in comparison to the shadow web.
Surface web, deep web, dark web, or shadow web, the thing you should keep in mind while surfing the internet is that always keep yourself protected and don’t venture on sites that may seem tempting. You never know when and how you can become a victim of a cybercrime.