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1 [1] (December 2, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goverlq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressionol Research Service Informing the Iegisl9tive debate since 1914 Updated December 2, 2024 The Dark Web: An Overview Many observers of the World Wide Web (web) have described it as having layers. One layer, the surface web, contains indexed content easily accessible with a traditional search engine such as Google. Another layer, the deep web, contains unindexed content that cannot be accessed with a simple Google search. Within the deep web is a segment known as the dark web-a layer where content is intentionally concealed. The dark web may be used for legitimate purposes as well as to conceal criminal or otherwise malicious activities. It is the exploitation of the dark web for illegal practices that has garnered particular interest from law enforcement officials and policymakers. Layers of the Web Many consider the internet and web to be synonymous; they are not. The web is just one portion of the internet, and a medium through which information may be accessed. (The internet is also used for email, file transfers, and direct messaging, among other things.) * Within the web, one portion is known as the surface web, comprised of content that has been indexed and is accessible through traditional search engines such as Google. * Another portion of the web is the deep web, which contains content that has not been indexed and thus is not accessible through traditional search engines. This includes content on private intranets (internal networks such as those at corporations, government agencies, or universities), and commercial databases like Westlaw. Accessing this content often requires authentication (i.e., verification of the user's identity) and permission to access the content. * Within the deep web is the dark web, the segment of the deep web that has been intentionally hidden. It refers to internet sites that users generally cannot access without using special software. While the content of these sites may be accessed using this software, publishers of these sites are often concealed. Users access the dark web with the expectation of being able to share information and/or files with little risk of detection. Accessing and Nayigating the Dark Web The dark web can be reached through decentralized, anonymized nodes on various networks including Tor (short for The Onion Router) or 12P (Invisible Internet Project). Tor, which was initially released as The Onion Routing project in 2002, was originally created by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory as a tool for anonymously communicating online. Some privacy and security advocates have noted that using Tor may not be completely anonymous (e.g., some internet service providers can see that an individual is using Tor-but not the content) and have suggested that using Tor in conjunction with a virtual private network (VPN) can provide additional privacy because a VPN may conceal internet activity, including the use of Tor. How Tor Works Tor works by routing users' web traffic through other users' computers, thus connecting to internet sites indirectly rather than directly and preventing the traffic from being traced to the original user. To do this, Tor creates layers (like layers of an onion) and routes traffic through those layers to conceal users' identities. To get from layer to layer, Tor establishes relays on computers around the world through which information passes. Information is encrypted between relays and is routed through three relays before reaching its destination. The final relay is called the exit relay, and the IP address of this relay is viewed as the source of the Tor traffic. When using Tor software, users' IP addresses remain hidden; as such, it appears that the connection to any given website is coming from the IP address of a Tor exit relay. While data on the magnitude of the deep web and dark web and how they relate to the surface web are unclear, data on Tor users do exist. According to metrics from the Tor Project, the mean number of daily Tor users in the United States across the first 10 months of 2024 was 430,054-or 13.7% of total mean daily Tor users worldwide. The United States had the second largest number of mean daily Tor users during this time period, behind Germany (37.7%) and ahead of Finland (3.7%), the Netherlands (3.5%), and India (2.7%). Navigating the Dark Web Traditional search engines often use web crawlers to access websites on the surface web. Web crawlers search the web and gather websites that the search engines can then catalog and index. Content on the deep web and dark web, however, may not be caught by web crawlers (and subsequently indexed by traditional search engines) for a number of reasons, including that it may be unstructured, unlinked, or temporary content. As such, there are different mechanisms for navigating the deep web and the dark web. Users often navigate dark websites through directories such as the Hidden Wiki, which organizes sites by category, similar to Wikipedia. Individuals can also search the dark web with search engines. For instance, Ahmia searches across hidden services on the Tor network, and Kilos searches markets, known as darknet markets, notorious for serving the cybercriminal underground. Tor is often slower than other web browsers, in part because Tor traffic is routed through multiple relays and

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