The Internet is not only what we see when doing a Google search, opening pages to search for information, social networks or messaging. The network is made up of different parts that we do not always see if we use common tools, which are part of the daily life of users. We are talking about the Dark Web , the Deep Web and the Darknet . In this article we are going to show what differences there are between these terms.
Internet beyond the use we give it
It is very common that the Internet is limited to a series of pages, services and tools for users. Many only open certain programs for their day to day, such as instant messaging programs, banking applications, social networks … Even browsing can be limited to just 20-30 pages that are the ones we open to inform ourselves or to read about what we are interested.
However the network is much more than that. There are countless websites that we have at our disposal, the programs that we can use and that are based on the connection, services of all kinds in short.
Now, as we say, not everything that makes up the Internet is readily available to everyone. We cannot access all the content simply by using Google Chrome and searching in any Internet search engine.
The World Wide Web is the part of the network that we can see. However, we can say that it is only the tip of the iceberg and that underneath there is much more.
This is where the Dark Web, Darknet, and Deep Web come into play. However, each of these terms has differences, as we will see. It is interesting to know how to distinguish what each one of them is and if they are really all dangerous.
What is the deep web
We can say that the Deep Web is the hidden Internet. It is all the content that is not indexed in the search engines and that, therefore, we cannot access it easily. It also represents the majority of the network.
Here we can mention private servers and pages , some payment transmission service or the files that we store in the cloud. As we can see, in this case there is no security danger, nor is there content that could be illegal or be a problem. Basically it is all the part of the Internet that is not accessible through search engines like Google or Bing.
This invisible Internet represents more than 90% (it is currently estimated that over 96%) of the total. It is difficult to calculate exactly, but as we can see, it houses all the content that we keep for example in cloud services, also academic databases, medical reports, government reports, repositories used by certain organizations …
What is the Darknet
The Darknet is an encrypted network on the World Wide Web. It is necessary to make use of specific tools and software to enter. It provides anonymity to users and we will need to use Tor to enter and navigate.
We can say that they are the specific networks that are kept hidden. For example we can name Tor or I2P. They serve to host pages and services in a hidden way, without being accessible to anyone who does not use the necessary knowledge and tools.
Of all the networks that make up the Darknet, the most popular is Tor. In many cases it is what they refer to when we read reports related to this part of the Internet.
As we can see, there are notable differences between the Deep Web (which does not have to be a danger) and the Darknet. However, between the latter and the Dark Web there is sometimes more confusion and both terms are used interchangeably.
What is the Dark Web
We can say that the Dark Web has certain similarities with the Deep Web in the sense that it is also a part of the Internet that is hidden. It is in fact part of the Deep Web, although it is a space that we can only access through anonymous tools such as the Tor network. But we can find more similarities with the Darknet, with which they are sometimes confused.
And yes, the Dark Web also has notable differences compared to the Deep Web in terms of security. This is the space used by the Internet black market, where we can find malware for sale, drugs, weapons, forged documents …
We can say that the Dark Web is the very sites that are part of the network , the Darknet. It is estimated that it would occupy only 0.1% of the total.
In short, as we see there are differences between Deep Web, Darknet and Dark Web. All this refers to the deep or hidden Internet, but in terms of security risk, in terms of the content that they host themselves, there are differences.