
Many news organizations operate on the Dark Web to protect confidential sources. However, just like the Surface Web, there are several legitimate activities on the Dark Web as well, including accessing information, sharing information, protecting one’s identity, and communicating with others. Malicious actors use the Dark Web to communicate about, sell, and/or distribute illegal content or items such as drugs, illegal weapons, malware, and stolen data. The Dark Web is well known due to media reporting on illicit activity that occurs there. Once logged into Tor or I2P the most direct way to find pages on the Dark Web is to receive a link to the page from someone who already knows about the page.

These tools are commonly known for providing user anonymity. Two popular tools for this are Tor and I2P.

The three parts commonly used to divide the web are the Surface Web, the Dark Web, and the Deep Web. Behind that web browser, there are multiple layers that the average user may encounter tangentially or never. To most users, the internet is what they experience through their email client and web browser every day, but there are a number of expansive services that operate in the background and the “web” is just one part of it.
