Dark Web = Shady Business?

The dark web is often associated with criminal activities or any businesses that must stay underground. Such association is not wrong, but the dark web is more than that.

The dark web is a subset of the internet where both browsers and servers can interact while staying anonymous to each other and to each routing relay on the way. On the regular internet, both browsers and servers can be identified based on the parties' IP addresses.

The dark web is the internet where one can only connect via open-source software called the Tor Browser (or its derivatives) developed by the Tor Project*. Between the end user's Tor Browser and the server** are countless routing relays that form the connection.

The Tor Project was created with the aim to form an internet that eliminates tracking and surveillance, so like any technology, both legitimate*** and criminal activities can make use of it.

From a security standpoint, the dark web offers values in area such as threat identification or secured information transfer. We should not fear the dark web; we should understand it and make it work for the good.

Bottom Line:

- For legitimate business, there is no adverse consequence of using the dark web.

- Just like the regular internet, connecting to untrusted web addresses can lead to cyber security issue.

- No matter how good the Tor technology is, there is no such thing as guaranteed anonymity.

reference:

* https://www.torproject.org

** e.g. yourwebname.onion

*** facebook's onion address: https://facebookcorewwwi.onion/