The dark web is a small portion of the internet that can only be reached with special software, most commonly the Tor browser, and whose sites ("hidden services") use addresses that ordinary browsers cannot open. These sites do not appear in regular search engines.
Why it matters
The dark web is often portrayed only as a criminal marketplace, and some of it is: stolen data and illegal goods are traded there. But the same anonymity technology is used by journalists, activists and ordinary people in countries with censorship or surveillance. For security teams, it matters because leaked credentials from breaches sometimes appear there, so monitoring services watch for exposure. Merely using Tor is legal in many countries, though laws vary by country.
Example
A Tor hidden service address ends in .onion and is a long string of characters. A normal browser cannot resolve it. Through Tor, traffic is relayed through several volunteer servers so the site does not learn the visitor's real IP address.
Common misconceptions
- The dark web and the deep web are the same. The deep web is much larger and mostly harmless.
- Everything there is illegal.
- Anonymity is perfect. Mistakes and malware can still expose users.
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