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The dark web works just about the same as the regular internet: it uses the same TCP/IP
framework to transmit HTTP and FTP traffic within and between networks that carry regular
internet traffic. Content on the dark web consists of HTML webpages similar to the rest of the
web.

In technical terms, it is an encrypted network that is built on top of the existing internet that
provides anonymity to users when accessing specific web pages.

The dark web is a part of the World Wide Web that is composed of a variety of anonymous
networks, online activity and non-referenced domains. It cannot be reached using traditional
search engines or visited by using traditional browsers but can be only be browsed
anonymously with the help of special software.

This is because content on the dark web is hosted on overlay networks, which uses a complete,
but fundamentally different, network addressing system than the web addresses most of us
know and use.

F2F (Friend-to-Friend) networks are the most basic kind of darknet, wherein two familiar people
communicate with each other directly over the Internet. This does to ensure that the users want
to share some files over a P2P (Peer to Peer) these networks are not accessible by other
people can be encrypted or password protected.

However, TOR is the most popular dark net tool, and in order to enter the Tor’s network a Tor
browser is required. Tor can even be used to visit normal websites as well, but its main purpose
is to access services which can’t be accessed on the regular Internet.

Hidden services account for only 1.5% of the Tor network volume. But the overwhelming
majority of resources requested over Tor hidden services (around 80% of the traffic) are
requests from child abuse sites.

TOR was created by the US military researchers in order to exchange intelligence information
anonymously.

Later on, the reason that Uncle Sam released it to the public was to obfuscate the source of its
attacks, to infiltrate civil rights movements, and to enable its spies to communicate intelligence
securely and effectively, which is a fancy of saying that they needed to create noise that would
thereby aid them in hiding their own messages.

In a nutshell, the government needed to give up power to maintain power.

So how does one access the Dark Web?

Accessing the Dark Web is not a difficult process. A user simply needs to install and use the
TOR browser. After installing the bundle and the other required tools the browser is ready to
start.

Just as the end user's IP address is bounced through several layers of encryption to appear to
be at another IP address on the Tor network, so is that of the website. Instead of being made up
76 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – July 2017 Edition
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