By Declan Dunn …..
The Internet is divided into 3 parts called, Surface Web, Deep Web, and Dark Web. But just what are these three parts to the Internet?
We use the internet in our life daily, but most people don’t know what the Internet truly is, or what it’s comprised of. We just think that Internet is something that is connected to our computers so we use it to make our lives more convenient.
We all know that the connected computer networks are constantly growing. But the Internet that we use is only the tip if the iceberg. In basic terms, this is how the Internet is constructed:
#1 Surface Web
When you visit web pages, run searches, even shop, you are using the Surface Web. You are visiting TechViews,org on the Surface Web. Even YouTube videos are on the Surface Web.
When you search using Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo search and etc., this also a part of the Surface Web.
Everything which you can find and search on Google is located on the Surface Web. But actually, this is only about 4% of the Internet. That’s it. Of everything you can see, search or view, it is only about 4% of the Internet.
The next obvious question is, that if I am only browsing through about 4% of the Internet, what and where is everything else?
#2 Deep Web
The Deep Web is another part of the internet, none of which is indexed or catalogued by the search engines, such as Google. It means you cannot search for this information in Google. It is not visible
The Deep Web is where documents, files, and other information is stored that search engines cannot locate. Mostly this is personal Cloud storage such as One Drive, Google Drive, DropBox, etc. This would also include any offline hard drives at home or in the office. Many businesses store files in a business version of their Cloud accounts as well. And the various governments around the world also store their data in private storage devices. For the most part these means of storage are secure unless a password is stolen or the company that manages your cloud storage gets into financial trouble. That happened two years ago to MEGA storage and had to shut down, losing all of it’s customer’s data in the process. And yes, that could happen to DropBox and the others just as easily. Anything in the Cloud is safe, until it get’s breached. And we are seeing breaches of stored data almost weekly these days.
Generally it’s considered safe because there aren’t links to go direct to those files that are searchable by the common search engines. Links can be made to any file in any storage device, but they are private links set up by the owners of that stored data and not available to the public. Needless to say, all those files of family photos, downloaded music, email archives, even stored and archived business data still are a part of the Web, it’s searchable only by permission.
After the revelations from Edward Snowden in 2014, there has been concern that various government agencies routines scan the Deep Web for information. But that is a subject for a future article.
#3 Dark Web
The Dark Web is the deepest part of the Deep Web where multiple layers of protection are needed to protect privacy. This is the area where most cyber-crime occurs. To get to the Dark Web you need one of a handful of specialized browsers that use encryption and multiple connected servers to get to where that data is. The most well-known browser for accessing the Dark Web is Tor, which was begun by the US military and Intelligence agencies to protect sensitive information. It has now spread globally as a means to access deeply private information. Also, the Dark Web is not indexed on Google or other search engines, so to get to any data storage or website in the Dark Web, you need a special URL that can only be seen by one of the special browsers such as TOR.
So, what most of us call the Internet, is really just a small part if the information stored by web-connected computers. However, it is extremely important that every computer user conduct regular backups of their information, and change passwords on a regular basis. There are multiple password managers available to help with that task (see our previous article on password managers)
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Data Source: Wikipedia
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