Tor and Introduction to Dark web

Tor: Browser of anonymity

Tor, short for The Onion Router, is a free service provided by The Tor Project that allows its users to access the internet without being able to be identified by prying eyes. It does this by directing the internet traffic through a free, worldwide, relay network, making it virtually impossible to track the user’s location or activity. There are actually known to be more than 6000 of these relays. Tor was made with the purpose of protecting the privacy of its users, to give the ability to its users to communicate confidential or sensitive information freely.

The concept of Onion routing is that the encryption is done in the application layer of the communication protocol stack, and is relayed through layers of nodes as mentioned before, which is nested like an onion. Tor as we know it today, was developed by Syverson, Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson under the “Onion Routing project” (later abbreviated to Tor), was launched on 20 September 2002, and was released a year later publicly. In 2006, Dingledine, Mathewson, and five others founded The Tor Project, a Massachusetts-based 501 research-education nonprofit organization responsible for maintaining Tor. The Tor Project is primarily responsible for maintaining software for the Tor anonymity network.

?

How do I use Tor?

The Onion network can be accessed through the Tor browser itself, or can be accessed through a standard web browser using services like tor2web. Tor messenger is also a service provided, for secure communication. Several security-focused operating systems use Tor, such as: Hardened Linux from Scratch, Incognito, Liberté Linux, to name a few.

Along with masking users' identities, users can also use Tor to host their websites via its "hidden services" service, ensuring only people on Tor can access the website. This is the ‘dark web’ element of Tor, and even Twitter is launching a Tor service for secure and private tweeting.

?

Who uses Tor and should I be using it?

Tor is used by general public who want to protect their internet identity, those individuals who don’t want to be tracked while communication of sensitive information, individuals who want to use the web to evade censorship and their government’s regulations, especially where the governments keep a control over information like reporters. Finally, Tor is also used for illicit purposes as well, as criminals can now take the liberty of not being tracked on the web.

Tor is infamous for being used for such illicit purposes, such as distribution of underage abuse content, drug markets, weapons, stolen credit card numbers, identify fraud or malware distribution. Tor also famously been One report estimates 6.7% of the users of Tor use it for illegal activities. Underground drugs marketplace Silk Road, which has been shut down, was a hidden site accessible only through Tor, which was causing to be quite a trouble for authorities to put a stop to.

?

Dark web and Tor

The internet is divided into three parts: surface web, deep web and dark web. While the surface web refers to the websites easily accessed through search engine, deep web and dark web refer to that part of the internet where they cannot. Deep and dark web are used almost interchangeably in confusion, while in reality, they are quite different. Deep web is the non-indexed part of the internet, while dark web, refers to all websites that are “dangerous” to visit, as they are intentionally hidden. Dark web is home to the unregulated market, meaning there are several illegal market places.

The Tor browser is the only way to access the dark web. User must know the exact address of the network they are trying to reach. While it is true that illicit activities take place in this part of the web, it is also a place where journalists and whistleblower can communicate freely.

As such, it is advisable to not try and visit the dark web unless you know what you’re doing for your own safety.

?

Conclusion

Tor ensures that any individual’s activity will not be tracked on the network. However, we cannot rely on Tor blindly. It is not meant to completely solve the problem of anonymity and privacy on the web, there are still ways for proficient hackers to get your information, thus, user activity on Tor should be carried out responsibly.