Darknet

Darknet (also known as the Dark Web) is the deepest layer of the web and belongs officially to the Deep Web. However, unlike the Deep Web, which does not require software to access, a user must use dedicated software to access it, such as TOR or I2P. There are even combinations possible, such as BitTorrent Darknets, which makes it more and more complex.

Darknet contains websites that have been intentionally created to be hidden. It becomes obvious when you see TOR URLs, such as http://kpynyvym6xqi7wz2.onion/links.html: impossible to guess, pretty hard to remember, no chance of identifying the purpose of the website, …

Although some specialized search engines facilitate looking up information on the Darknet, they are not that accurate because of the ephemeral nature of the Darknet sites. Thus, specific Darknet URLs are often shared between users.

The Darknet name was always associated with black markets and illegal activities such as drug dealing, gun supplying, human trafficking, selling false government documents, selling breached accounts credentials, trade secrets, and many more. 

This black side does not mean Darknet websites are all illegal per se. For instance, there are a considerable number of sites hosted on the darknet that belong to human rights activates, journalists, and political protests that want to conceal their identity. 

As written in our article on OSINT investigations, the same Darknet technology is commonly utilized by OSINT investigators to conceal their traffic when searching the surface and deep web.