What is the darknet and how to get there? Secrets of the Darknet. Looking for useful things in Tor hidden services

What I knew before about the “dark Internet” - well, that this is such a hidden segment of the network in which no less dark individuals sell, buy and show everything that on the regular Internet could have long been subject to criminal liability. Drugs, weapons, fake passports, and everything is beyond the radar of any regulatory organizations, just like on the planet Tatooine. It’s enough to make you want to explore this hot spot.

Dark Internet (darknet)

A segment of the deep web (deep web), sites that are not indexed by search engines and are not accessible through standard browsers.

The most popular way to get there is Tor (The Onion Router), an onion router that sends data through many of its own servers and thereby covers all traces of users. The service was developed for the US Navy in 2004 and has become a Pandora's box: its decentralization makes it impossible to simply “turn off” the system.

We need to start with the main thing - for me, the Internet and technology have always been just tools for transmitting content. Their filling and some non-obvious capabilities interested me no more than those of an iron or a juicer. VPN, Tor, IP2P, proxy - I learned all these magic words from socio-political, not geek publications. The first ones sparked a wave of interest in the topic a year or two ago, when Roskomnadzor was just beginning to become a serious censorship body. Instructions on how to bypass the blocking that the department actively imposed on interesting or politically objectionable resources became relevant. Then the choice settled on ZenMate, only to enter the fenced-in, it seems, according to Alina Kabaeva, “Luch”. It turned out that when this thing was turned on, it significantly slowed down the connection, and the culture hacker magazine predictably slowed down the pace of work, so soon I stopped turning on the plug-in icon hanging in the upper right corner.

So, with the dark internet it’s even worse. Anonymity and security require sacrifice, so surfing the Tor browser I chose for the tour instantly brought back memories of payment cards with ladybirds from the pre-broadband Internet era. The feeling is enhanced by the shabby design of most “dark” sites - this is what the web looked like on the monitors of the characters in “Hackers” or “The X-Files.” But this only adds charm to the process; we came here for content, not comfort.

First of all, the hand reaches for the forbidden fruit - here they are, the legendary drug markets Silk Road, Pandora, Agora. Everything there is exactly as you expect and at the same time afraid to see - right here with prices, descriptions, photographs, reviews of happy customers

Internet structure

REGULAR Internet

VKontakte, FURFUR, Buzzfeed and everything else that we are used to constantly using.

"Underwater" Internet

Imageboards, FTP servers, marginal sites with naked teenagers and other interest clubs that fall beyond the bounds of ordinary consciousness.

Proxies required

Deep Internet

Websites blocked by censorship organizations, hacker forums, legally questionable content.

Tor or alternative systems required

Dark Internet

Trade in drugs, weapons, documents and people, exchange of secret or dangerous documents, banned books.

CLOSED Internet (the existence of which is reasonably doubtful)

Reports on secret government experiments, snuff, services of killers.

You can immediately forget about search engines. At least about special ones designed for searching on the dark web. There are not one or two of them, but using them is a real pain, there is no question of any relevance or effectiveness. It's easier to immediately go to existing lists of links - for example, Hidden Wiki or TORDIR. Lurkmore also has its own option for beginners, but it’s very small and not interesting.

First of all, the hand reaches for the forbidden fruit: here they are, the legendary drug markets Silk Road, Pandora, Agora - the list can be continued for a very long time. Everything there is exactly as you expect and at the same time are afraid to see - right with prices, descriptions, photographs, reviews of happy customers. Most reminiscent of the old Ebay or Japanese denim fan forum before the advent of popular specialty stores. The diversity is amazing - you feel like a Soviet person on a Baltic business trip, nothing less. It's hard to believe it's so simple. “Is this even legal?” But enough: firstly, it’s illegal, and secondly, after the third market studied, it becomes boring, almost like with sneakers.

Why don't the valiant drug police close all these shops? “Because this doesn’t happen in the real world,” answers Dmitry Khomak, one of the founders of Lurkmore. - The district police officer usually knows where in the area under his responsibility all sorts of interesting things are happening, but he does not break in there with operatives and riot police. And the point is not corruption, but the fact that it is more profitable to keep small traders of forbidden goods on a short leash and wait until someone big arrives. Although there is always a chance of running into some kind of police “Operation Black Network.”

What's next on the list? Of course, pornography. It’s not that it’s really lacking on the regular Internet, but it’s still “dark”, “deep” - here you certainly won’t have to look for long for something perverse. But no. Damn Thor search engines give links to the local Pirate Bay on the first few dozen pages of a request. Okay, let's dive into the link library and look for code tags in the description. And here’s the terrible truth - there are not that many of them at all, even much less than all kinds of illegal commercial services. The most extreme thing I came across was a porn tube-type resource entirely dedicated to coprophilia and related areas of the erotic. Even the greasy pedophiles who allegedly have taken a liking to the darknet don’t advertise themselves too much. Except that on local imageboards, unlike Russia and Asian countries, the loli section is not prohibited. There were also several portals for fans of young boys, but, again, limited to hand-drawn content. Even Milonov Tor would be too lazy to install this.

The most extreme thing I came across was a porn tube-type resource entirely dedicated to coprophilia and related areas of erotica

Limits of anonymity

But Pink Meth, a platform long closed on the surface, is thriving in the deep web - a platform on which users post intimate photos of their exes, or whatever, partners, invariably accompanying the “leak” with screenshots and the address of the Facebook page. In general, it is still impossible not to note the fairly high concentration of asocial types on the darknet. Popular Russian-language forums are filled with discussions of alternative types of income: blackmail with intimate photographs, fraud on social networks under the guise of a psychic or an individual prostitute. On another thread they are discussing the possibility of purchasing a grenade launcher by mail, almost in case of a zombie apocalypse. Against the backdrop of such threads, users running in to buy prohibited substances look like stupid tourists at an oriental bazaar.

What else can you purchase in the .onion domain zone? Not much, but everything an action hero needs: firearms of all kinds (some stores chastely ban only “weapons of mass destruction”), passports, driver’s licenses, credit cards, counterfeit bills, gold bars and iPhones. They say you can also buy killers, slaves or human organs. Have not found. But I found a couple of excellent trackers, one of them specializes in mondo films and shockumentary, from which, even if you are not a big fan of dead bodies, you can select something interesting. Others simply store content without any problems, which is mercilessly cleared by copyright holders on the regular network.

While systematically searching for links from what at first seemed like a huge catalog, I came across only a couple of interesting libraries, several postcard sites with dubstep and eight-bit animation, and a certain number of radical portals like the Caucasus Center or CyberBerkut. There are also havens for anarchists (many) of all stripes and neo-Nazis (not so many), lovingly filled with tons of thematic content. The platform for the exchange of hot information between journalists, opposition politicians and other interested parties seems to be the most advanced and up to date with modern design standards. This is understandable: the process there is organized seriously, the site administration takes a 20% commission from each transaction.

Popular Russian-language forums are filled with discussions of alternative types of income: blackmail with intimate photographs, fraud on social networks under the guise of a psychic or an individual prostitute.

All financial transactions in the Tor universe are carried out using BitCoin. Decentralized cryptocurrency is the only reasonable monetary equivalent for purchasing prohibited products.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation recently published a bill according to which the use of cryptocurrencies will be punishable by fines of up to 50 thousand rubles for individuals and up to 1 million rubles for legal entities. Users of darknet forums are confident that there can be no talk of any effective fight against cryptocurrencies in Russia: the relevant departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs simply do not have enough competence.

Everything turned out to be approximately as predicted: without special consumer intentions, there is practically nothing to do on the dark Internet. Super-secret documents and reports on experiments on people, apparently, still lie at the next, deeper level, but “The Anarchist Cookbook” is not difficult to find “on the surface.” In the process of getting to know each other, it turns out that there are a huge number of extreme sites for which you also do not need to turn on the Tor browser at all. The illusion of absolute, arcade-style freedom is, of course, enchanting, but the spell subsides as soon as you realize that you, in general, do not need a fake driving license of a British citizen.

Will the young and free take to the “dark internet” to avoid the undue attention of increasingly active internet watchdogs? Hardly. To do this, according to Homak, a cataclysm must occur that will make the ordinary Internet completely unsuitable for communication. Even the romantic desire for complete digital anonymity can hardly replace the convenience of multimillion-dollar services and media that suck personal data from their users. To read news, even uncensored ones, Tor is not yet required, and the pages of 99% of social network users, sadly, do not actually contain anything interesting. And, in the end, well, not all of us are destined to become action heroes.

©Mikko Lagerstedt

Wondering what the Dark Web is and how to access it? We go into detail, step by step, about the best and safest way to access the Dark Web, from setting up TOR and choosing a VPN service to what extra effort you need to make to remain anonymous.

In fact, accessing the Dark Web is quite easy. But it's even easier to be found in it if you don't take precautions.

According to research, only 4% of the entire Internet is visible to the general public. This means that the remaining 96% of the Internet is on the so-called “deep web”. But let's understand the terminology.

What is Surface Web?

Clear Web/Clear Net/Surface Web is the regular Internet, the “world wide web”, where you hang out every day and do everyday things: check email, go to Facebook and Twitter, shop on Amazon, etc. All sites and pages that a search engine, such as Google, “sees” are located on the Surface Web.

What is the Deep Web?

Deep Web is a subclass of the Internet, sites that cannot be found in search engines like Google. This includes all pages that are blocked from outside users by login windows, all company pages created for internal use. Most of the Deep Web resources are not illegal.

What is the Dark Web or DarkNet?

The Dark Web is a subclass of the Deep Web containing all sorts of sites, legal and illegal. These include black markets that sell drugs, counterfeit goods and weapons, as well as hacker sites, adult pages, Bitcoin mixers and even sites for hiring hitmen. The variety of sites on the Dark Web is sometimes surprising. But the Dark Web does not have its own search engine that would work in the same way as Google on the “regular” Internet.

If you need access to black market sites or DarkNet resources (with the .onion domain), then you need to access the Dark Web using the TOR network through the TOR browser. It is the most commonly used web browser on the Dark Web.

How to Access the Dark Web

Step 1

To start, connect to a reliable VPN, for example, and use it all the time, regardless of whether you are using TOR or not. You can choose the most suitable VPNs to use with TOR. You must take your anonymity and security seriously if you visit the Dark Net.

Don't be fooled into thinking that ISPs and law enforcement aren't trying to track down those using TOR to access the Dark Web. Moreover, they are quite good at it, so don’t make it easy for them.

Please note that a TOR vulnerability has recently become known that reveals your real IP address, which in turn can lead to your real location. If you already have a TOR browser, then update it immediately. Vulnerabilities like these most often occur in TOR.

When using a VPN, your DarkNet activity will be hidden from your ISP and government agencies as all your data will be encrypted. No one will even know that you are using TOR, let alone that you are browsing DarkNet markets.

Better yet, the VPN gives you a fake IP address registered in a different country altogether. So even if TOR is compromised, you will simply be tracked to another location that is not actually associated with you.

Another benefit of using a VPN is to prevent hackers from stealing your identity as well as personal files and photos from your computer.

You need to use a good VPN that doesn't require login, is fast, preferably accepts Bitcoin, has a DNS-leak switch, and is TOR compatible.

Step 2

You cannot access the Dark Web using a regular browser like Internet Explorer or Google Chrome. To access the Dark Web, you need to download the TOR browser. But download it only from the official TOR website!

Close all windows and applications that connect to the World Wide Web, including Skype, OneDrive, iCloud, etc. Open your VPN app and connect to a different location than where you are. Make sure to use the OpenVPN protocol as it is the most secure.

After that, open your regular browser and then download the TOR installation files.

Step 3

Download the TOR browser package on your PC or laptop. When the download is complete, double-click the downloaded file, select the destination folder (the folder where you want to extract the browser) and confirm the installation.

Step 4

Launch the TOR browser. Open the folder where you extracted TOR and run it. The TOR home page will open in a new window. Connect to the network via TOR, following the simple instructions.

Now you have a good level of anonymity and security and can access Dark Web sites.

And so you wanted to go to one of the Dark Web sites...

You can check out the Dark Net Market below to visit some of the sites. Just look! Many domains only exist for a short period of time or move frequently.

Silk Road – http://silkroad7rn2puhj.onion/

Dream Market – http://4buzlb3uhrjby2sb.onion/?ai=552713

Imperial Market – http://empiremktxgjovhm.onion/

Rutor - http://xuytcbrwbxbxwnbu.onion / (Russian market)

If you want to enter certain Dark Web markets, you should follow the guide for that specific market, as this will tell you in detail what to do to register, view offers, etc.

If you are looking for a larger list of hidden deep web links, it is below.

This is one of the largest lists of resources verified by darkwebnews.com with the .onion extension on DarkNet with a search function, site name, status, description, categories. But whether they work or not is unknown.

These are all the necessary steps to safely access the Dark Web, but there are a few more important things to know...

Bitcoin and Dark Web Shopping

If you go to the Dark Web to buy something, then you will need to use a cryptocurrency to do so, and Bitcoin is the most used cryptocurrency on the Dark Web.

Buying digital currencies is a separate topic, we will not go into it, but there is one valuable piece of advice on what to do so that your account is not immediately closed and you do not lose your money.

Never send cryptocurrency directly from your account (where you buy tokens) anywhere on DarkNet, and also never send tokens directly from anywhere on DarkNet to your account. Otherwise, you can immediately tell where the coins came from. You need to send tokens through the exchange to the wallet, and from the wallet to the Dark Web, and vice versa.

Additional Security Steps on DarkNet

Step 5

Don't resize the TOR Browser window unless you like to irritate yourself. Intelligence agencies have special programs that can determine by window size which browser a person is using. TOR's different default window sizes allow you to remain incognito.

Step 6

Remember that TOR is not necessarily 100% anonymous. You will need to disable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Step 7

Disable your webcam or cover it with black tape. Otherwise, you may be surprised later that your intimate photos are used for blackmail or extortion.

Step 8

Also, mute your microphone or cover it with tape to muffle it.

Step 9

Never use your real name, photos, email, or even a password you've used before on the Dark Web. This is the fastest way to track you. Use an anonymous email account and aliases that have nothing to do with you and that you have never used before.

Step 10

If you use TOR on the Dark Web for anything other than , you should seriously think about your privacy and security.

This text was created for informational purposes only, does not call for action and does not contain links to any sites. In addition, we remind you that the production, sale and transfer of narcotic and psychotropic substances is a criminal offense in accordance with Art. 228-231 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

What is the deep internet

The Internet that we use every day is called the “surface web” (from the English “surface web”). You don't need special tools to access it - a working connection is enough. All pages of the “surface” Internet can be easily found using any search engine, and user actions on the Internet and data about them are available to Internet providers. Accordingly, they can also be tracked by law enforcement agencies in accordance with a court decision.

In addition to the surface network, there is also the deep Internet (from the English “deep web”). You cannot find pages from the deep web using a regular search engine.- they are not indexed by search engines. Therefore, it is impossible to accurately estimate the size of this segment of the Internet.

Links to pages on the deep web work in a special .onion format, so you can’t open them with a regular browser. To access the deep network, you need special programs that preserve user anonymity and encrypt traffic.

There is also darknet is a closed network within the deep internet. The concepts of “deep web” and “darknet” are often confused, but the darknet has a fundamental difference from the usual deep network.

The deep Internet is a single network hidden from search engines, but there can be several darknets, and each of them requires special access. So, to get into each of the popular darknets - Freenet, RetroShare or I2P - you need to install separate software.

Why do we need a “hidden” Internet?

There can be many reasons for creating pages on the deep web or one of the darknets. The main advantage of closed networks compared to superficial ones is, of course, anonymity. Therefore, the hidden Internet is often used for illegal activities.

Drugs, weapons, fake documents, and even people are traded on darknet trading platforms. If desired, you can also find contacts of a contract killer on the darknet.

In addition, user data often leaks onto the dark Internet - hackers who break into databases periodically leak them into closed networks. The easiest way to pay on local markets is with cryptocurrency - again, due to the fact that it allows you to remain anonymous.

Another option for illegal activity on the darknet is distribution of pirated content. However, this won’t surprise anyone even on the “surface”. And in countries where authorities are actively pursuing piracy, the dark internet comes to the aid of lovers of free content.

The deep web and darknet have gained notoriety due to the fact that they are often used by criminals. Nevertheless, Illegal activity is not the only use of hidden networks.

There, for example, human rights activists and journalists from totalitarian and authoritarian states create their pages. On the darknet, they are not afraid of either censorship or authorities. The deep Internet is an excellent platform for the fight for freedom of speech and it can be used not only for illegal purposes.

What useful things can you find on the deep web?

The deep web isn't just about sites for criminals. We have collected several links that may be useful to ordinary law-abiding citizens.

Libraries	After the Russian-language library “Flibust” was blocked on the surface Internet, it moved to the “depths”. There you can find thousands of books in Russian. Flibusta has its own pages on the deep web and the I2P darknet. Other well-known deep web book resources include The Verbal Hero and the Imperial Library of Trantor.
Rospravosudie	Database of publicly available court decisions from all over Russia.
Image hosting	Anonymous image hosting where you can upload jpg, png or gif files up to 20 megabytes for free.
Science articles	A deep “mirror” of the Sci-Hub portal, which allows you to download scientific articles for free.
Anti-censorship community	The multilingual community We Fight Censorship publishes materials that, for one reason or another, have been considered prohibited in different countries.
Questions and answers service	The English-language Hidden Answers service works on the same principle as Mail.ru Answers. Some users ask questions, while others answer them. The main difference from similar “superficial” platforms is the subject matter of the questions. They are mainly devoted to cybersecurity and the deep Internet. Although there are also quite ordinary thematic sections, for example, about relationships or food.
Search engine	If you want to search for something on the deep web yourself, you can use a system that allows you to search for working sites on the deep web.

In essence, it is “a network on top of another Internet network” (domains are used .onion). Typically, the TOR browser with its onion routing is used for access (a certain level of anonymity is provided).

If previously it was considered impossible to track a user, now it is possible thanks to malware (Trojans). Many hackers are now introducing their Trojans into ready-made Tor clients or into existing solutions. Thus, many .onion domains today represent a means of botnet administration.

All information is provided for informational purposes and does not encourage action. The author is not responsible for the material presented and any possible harm caused by the materials in this article. Does not provide links to prohibited sites.

Typically, the Darknet network is used to trade prohibited goods: fake documents (passport, driver's license, id-card), drugs, weapons, etc. Trading is carried out for bitcoins - a peer-to-peer payment system, the owner of the wallet of which is very difficult to track. In some countries Bitcoin is prohibited, in others you can pay for any purchases on the Internet with Bitcoins.

Many political movements have recently become active on ONION domains. The most famous online store is Silk Road (now closed). Here you could buy everything: from soft drugs to weapons.

How to access the onion website

Install the TOR browser and configure security.

Before going online, make sure that anonymity (onion routing) is enabled! In the upper left corner of the browser:

Next, we use the search for .onion resources. Finding links to working sites is not always easy. In many Darknet directories, links have not worked for a long time, or the site owner can restrict access himself (an error pops up - “cannot open” or “404”).

There are almost no Russian-language resources, the most popular are:

Runion– forum. Issues of it, security are discussed, there is a purchase and sale section.
RAMP– trading forum.
R2D2- forum, does not always work. There is trade.

Use TORCH search on .onion sites:

http://xmh57jrzrnw6insl.onion

What's on the Darknet?

WARNING

The authors and editors are not responsible for what is on the other side of the links provided. Adult content, illegal goods and services, various types of fraud - all this can be found on the dark web all the time. Be careful, do not leave personal information anywhere and remember the laws.

Carders' forum, a collection of photographs of women crushing animals with their heels, a mirror of the Russian Counter-Strike forum, women with marijuana leaves and buds in their intimate places, someone's file dump with a bunch of books and a binder of old issues of "Hacker", a forum for gun lovers, photographs pissing women, an archive of books in Chinese, a forum for men interested in penis enlargement, and, of course, drugs in all types, forms and states of aggregation. All this can be seen in less than ten minutes of exploring the dark side of the web.

It's not so easy to dig something out of this pile of garbage. We automatically followed all the links, and out of eight thousand pages, only 4,300 were opened. About a thousand sites immediately require authorization or show a login form without any explanation - you can’t get there on a crooked goat. There are also a lot of empty pages, pages with the default response from the web server, as well as various mirrors, clones and stubs. In general, even if we take into account that some potentially useful sites are not available 100% of the time and simply did not make it into our database, in general there are not so many live resources collected - maybe a couple of thousand.

Using Tor from Python

Requesting pages from your scripts via Tor is not much more difficult than from the regular Internet. All you need is a local Tor node (just open Tor Browser), Python and the . Here is a script that downloads the main page of The Pirate Bay via Tor and displays its contents. You'll probably figure out how to download something else.

Import socks, socket, urllib url = "http://hss3uro2hsxfogfq.onion" def create_connection(address, timeout=None, source_address=None): sock = socks.socksocket() sock.connect(address) return sock socks.setdefaultproxy( socks.PROXY_TYPE_SOCKS5, "127.0.0.1", 9150, True) socket.socket = socks.socksocket socket.create_connection = create_connection contents = urllib.urlopen(url).read() print contents

What are these resources? After preliminary sorting, it turned out that the set of topics was extremely narrow. A significant part of the sites are shops and trading platforms, designed in the form of forums or auctions in the style of eBay. Drugs, weapons, fake documents, stolen goods, credit cards, exploits, botnets - all this can be found in abundance on virtual junkyards. We'll talk more about specific examples later.

This category also includes sites that offer various services - from bitcoin laundering to contract killings. And if the first sounds plausible, then the second is probably a hoax. Fraud, consider it, is adjacent to the store segment, making it even larger.

Another large segment is various kinds of pornography. From delights like those listed at the beginning of the article, to the usual variety, which is abundant on the open Internet.

Actually, a considerable share of resources raises the question: why was it hidden in .onion? Libertarian blogs, hacker manifestos, home pages... It often feels like someone just wanted to show off or practice hosting a site in a fashionable way. Such resources disappear one after another - their owners quickly realize that maintaining a server is expensive, and there is no point in it.

Search and directories

The first thing you want to provide yourself with when you find yourself on an alternative version of the Internet is a search engine. There seem to be no problems here: there are Torch, Grams, not Evil, Fess, Candle, Ahima, and maybe a couple of lesser-known attempts to repeat Google’s success on the dark web.

We will not undertake to compare search engines, objectively assessing the quality of the results: this requires cunning metrics and techniques that we do not have. Based on purely subjective feelings, Grams has seriously spammy results, while Evil and Torch poorly sort the results: completely random garbage may appear at the top instead of large sites. This is not always a drawback (garbage can be interesting too), but in the end we found Fess the most enjoyable.

Fess

But in the case of the dark web, searching a la Google is not nearly as cool and universal a solution as on the regular Internet. Firstly, the most interesting things are hidden on forums, which often require authorization, and search engines are overwhelmed. Secondly, there are so few resources in general that the search loses all meaning: for different requests you will come across the same sites plus a variety of garbage that is not relevant to the matter. Well, this is not to mention the fact that on the dark web, search engines have little chance of tracking user behavior through analogues of Google Analytics and AdWords in order to improve the quality of results.

The solution to the problem on the regular Internet was found even before the advent of modern search engines and looks like a catalog of useful links. In a sense, this article is just such a directory, we just selected the most interesting resources alive at the moment, and also, of course, we do not make money by posting links.

The situation with popular directories on the dark web is different: on the well-known Hidden Wiki, a significant part of the links do not open at all, and the prioritization and selection principle raises serious questions for the resource owners. There is also Onion URL Repository, OnionDir, Yet another Tor Directory, TorLinks, HD Wiki, the Russian “Godnotaba” (by the way, it’s really quite good, albeit small) and hundreds of other collections - large and small, curated and not very curated, posted both in the dark web, as well as on the regular, light Internet.

Mail

A completely anonymized mailbox is a useful thing, and, of course, such services exist. But you understand that the demand here is very specific: not only hackers, spies, political dissidents and informants want to send letters and leave no traces, but also spammers, extortionists, bots and other lovers of automation of all stripes. This imposes a lot of restrictions.

The most popular mailer that works through Tor is called Sigaint. Its logo is an eye with menacing bloody drops underneath it. “Blood from the eyes” is a very accurate metaphor in this case. The interface is straight out of the nineties, an eye-catching palette, advertising stuffed here and there, an evil captcha (you need to enter it both when logging in and when sending a letter), a limit on the mailbox size - 50 MB, problems with Russian encoding when sending letters... In short, user experience is about the level of medieval torture.

Alternatives to Sigaint seem to exist, but they are either paid (for example, Lenatos costs 0.016 BTC for six months, AnonInbox - 0.1 BTC per year), or send letters only to other addresses in Tor. The second group includes, for example, TorBox and Mail2Tor. In order for a message sent from one of them to be delivered to regular mail on the clearnet, you will have to use a relay, and this is a separate headache.

There is a whole class of servers based on open source OnionMail. If you master the setup, you can connect to one of them through a regular mailer (via POP3 and SMTP). For example, Thunderbird with the TorBirdy plugin is suitable. Find the current list of servers in the Servers section on the OnionMail website. If you use Linux (preferably Tails), then the onion.py script will help ease the setup.

Hosting

The early Internet was different in that those who wanted to open their own website had a lot of opportunities to do it for pennies or for free - in exchange for a banner or at least a link to the hoster. The situation in Onion is different: free hosting has not caught on, and paid ones do not look very attractive.

The reason for this is simple: mainly drug dealers and other bandits are willing to pay for hosting, which can only be accessed via Tor. If you are not planning to join them, you can easily set up a server at home, or find a hosting provider who will not be outraged if you run Tor on their server. Even for criminal activity, they often resort to the services of so-called bulletproof hosters, which also work with clearnet.

But since we’re talking about hosting on the darknet, let’s give a couple of examples. Hidden Host promises 20 GB of space and unlimited traffic for 0.1 BTC per year; costs 0.25 BTC per year and gives only 256 MB of space and 1 TB of traffic; Kowloon Hosting Services has flexible pricing - from 0.04 BTC per month for 256 MB to 0.8 BTC for six months and 2 GB.

By the way, Kowloon (pronounced “Kowloon” or “Kowloon”. This, by the way, is a terribly overpopulated part of Hong Kong) has a free trial plan. If you write a letter with the subject TRIAL domain_name to a special mail, then in response you will receive the data necessary for access. That is why, apparently, during our impromptu indexing of the dark web, we found about six hundred links to empty default pages hosted by Kowloon.

Sharing

If free hosting in Onion is tight, then there are plenty of places where you can temporarily host a file, picture or piece of text. For files smaller than 500 KB there is PopFiles, you can upload the picture to a site with the simple name Image Hosting, text - to CrypTor, ZeroBin or Pasta.

Any of them allows you to set a timer by which information will be erased. Stronghold Paste has a section with archives - you can ask what kind of nonsense they post there. To prevent your data from being included in this list, do not forget to check the Private box. Please note that Pasta has a text size limit of as much as 10 MB. If you wish, you can easily post a file encoded in Base64 here.

Torrents

What usually hides in the dark corners of the Internet besides drugs and naked pussies? Of course, warez! Nowadays, however, there is no special fun here: there is a mirror The Pirate Bay, and it generally covers most of the pirate needs. RuTracker does not have a separate service in Onion (Tor already allows you to access RuTracker.org bypassing the blocking), but Rutor does have one. You can also look at “Buried” - this site is an order of magnitude smaller (1.6 million hands versus 25 million for Rutor), but an extra chance to find something rare won’t hurt.

Books

For book lovers, the dark web also has everything you need - first of all, it’s “Flibusta” and an excellent search engine for the “Traum library” called “Verbal Hero”. You can look for English and German books in a place with the pretentious name Imperial Library of Trantor, but new arrivals are a bit slow there. There is also Caliber, although the database of 1600 books is somehow not very serious. You can delve into the ruins of computer and educational literature in English at this link. And of course, the mirror of the pirated scientific work aggregator Sci-Hub (we already talked about it once) is seriously vying for a place in bookmarks.

Communication

Going to hiddenservices just to chat is definitely an acquired taste. There are enough resources on the regular Internet where you can register anonymously (or not register at all) and chat about whatever your heart desires. On “onion” sites they talk mainly about business. You probably already understand which ones.

There are not many places for free communication, but they exist. Until recently, the Onion had a mirror 2ch.hk - we provide a link in case it still comes to life. There are other imageboards: the foreign 8chan, famous in narrow circles, the Russian-language Neboard and Haibane.

Galaxy2 can be considered the main social network of Onion - if you dig around, you can find interesting thematic groups in it or meet interesting people. Those who prefer to communicate in Russian will be interested in the onelon resource. This is a rather unusual blogging platform with a small but vibrant community. Please note that to register you will need to create a PGP key for yourself (this, by the way, is a common phenomenon on the dark web).

The Hidden Answers website may also be helpful. This is something like Yahoo Answers or “[email protected]”, but with a focus on the darknet and related things. The main topics are the reliability of trading platforms, setting up Tor and, of course, searching for thematic resources. The latter makes Hidden Answers an interesting place to start surfing.

At least for show, it’s worth mentioning that Onion operates a Facebook mirror. For those living in Russia, it makes little sense, but, for example, Facebook is blocked in China, so accessing it through Tor is just fine.

Generally speaking, much of the correspondence on the dark side of the Internet occurs not on websites, but on Jabber and IRC. Selecting suitable clients, setting up an anonymous connection and searching for servers and groups is a topic for a separate article, so here we will limit ourselves to just a couple of links. TorXMPP, Cyruserv, securejabber.me - Jabber servers located in Onion; CgAn IRC and Volatile are IRC clients that can work directly in the Tor Browser; ChatTor is a primitive but convenient web chat with the ability to create your own rooms.

Well, if you suddenly become completely bored and have no one to talk to about the weather and the latest research on the darknet, then take a look at Chat with strangers - this is the local analogue of Chatroulette.

The shops

Stores and trading platforms seem to be the main use of Tor hidden services so far. Therefore, let’s look at them in a little more detail and (purely for research purposes) go through the main markets. In general, when you look through the lists of links, all these “acropolises”, “Alexandrias”, “oases”, “ghettos”, “shops”, “shops”, “shops”, “pharmacies” and other nooks and crannies make your head spin. The competition is enormous, and every shabby drug dealer is trying to get his way, playing out and figuring out how to stand out. What do you think of the name of the store “Shimmering Circus of Vengeance”? We liked it too - purely from a literary point of view.

AlphaBay

AlphaBay is one of the largest markets that divided the hidden market after the closure of the famous Silk Road. “Officially” it is believed that the site was “founded by a carder under the nickname alpha02, a well-known member of most carding forums and a well-known figure among advanced carders.” European researchers claim, however, that the market operates under the protection of the “Russian mafia,” since the servers are located in Russia and are administered from Russian IP addresses. (It would be nice, by the way, to come up with a catchier name for the “Russian mafia” like “Yakuza”!)

The mafia may be Russian, but the site is entirely English. Registration is free, but very complicated - with a couple of dozen fields. Trading, as in the vast majority of markets, is carried out in bitcoins. There is an escrow service. As buyers note, the site is promptly moderated, removing spam and scam. However, judging by some sections filled with advertising and offers of intimate services, this is still not enough.

AlphaBay's biggest advantage is, of course, its range. The market contains 147 thousand offers in the Drugs & Chemicals section (offering, as expected, drugs and illegal drugs), 27 thousand in the Fraud section (database dumps and personal data are sold here) and 13 thousand in the Digital Products section (access to accounts, gaming keys and various software). The remaining sections also contain several thousand items: weapons, jewelry, carding, malware, hosting and other services. The Guides & Tutorials section is unexpectedly interesting, in which a wide variety of information is offered for sale: from harmless website directories or guides on “hacking Wi-Fi” to ready-made botnets, including lists of already existing bots, instructions for use and management software.

Dream Market

A market similar in functionality, quality and content to AlphaBay. Specializes in drugs and digital products. There are an order of magnitude fewer positions, but overall the range of products is the same. The market is unremarkable, except perhaps for an intriguing question: why does anyone use it if there are better markets?

We decided to show you this site for one reason: other English-language stores have an even more meager selection. In other words, if AlphaBay is “the best of the best,” then Dream Market is “the worst of the best,” a kind of “first step” in the quality of a typical hidden market.

Hydra

Hail Hydra! Oh, wait, that's not what we're talking about. Hydra calls itself an “anonymous marketplace,” but it’s essentially a social network for drug dealers. Specializes exclusively in drugs (amphetamine and its salts, cocaine and derivatives, exchange of bookmarks). At the same time, the owners are not shy about advertising even on the open Internet: the hydra.ooo website is on the first pages of Google, which is strange. Children's typos and frivolous emoticons also do not add trust.

The site is Russian-language, and judging by the comments in the code and the applications used, it was originally Russian. Registration is minimalistic (username and password) without any confirmation. There is a chat. Spam is not cleared: admins do not consider those who paid money for posting to be spammers, as reported on the first page. In addition to sections on selling, hiring and discussing sellers in different regions and countries, it has three interesting sections: “FAQULTET” (the topics of which reveal the details and secrets of the shadow drug business), “HYPERLAB” (recipes and methods for synthesizing drugs) and “WORK” ( scorching the hidden relationship of some seemingly legal professions with the world of drug trafficking).

T*chka

Another drug market, but unlike the others - with an ideology. “Tochka” (as the name suggests, the creator is Russian) was created a year and a half ago and positioned itself as the first drug market that controls the fairness and safety of the transaction: before “Tochka” in the English-language Onion the concept of “dead drop” (drop-off) was not widely used. The site administrator admitted that he is trying to put “honesty, security and tolerance in every way” into the market: this can be seen already during registration, in the warning about the ban on the distribution of low-quality and untested drugs, weapons, poisons, porn, extremist materials and discrimination based on race, politics or religion.

The interface can be selected in Russian, but the description of all offers is in English. As you can see in the screenshot, there are three orders of magnitude fewer offers than on AlphaBay, but the emphasis is on the “purity” and “quality” of the product. The product, by the way, is not always drugs - rare and expensive medicines, which in a number of countries cannot be obtained legally, documents and programs for falsification, and some hacker services are also sold on the market.

Forums

RAMP

Another Russian-language semi-forum-semi-market for drug dealers. There is no communication, discussion of hacking, security, cryptography, leaks, malware, carding, and so on is prohibited already during registration, during which you are required to pore over this list of prohibitions for two minutes. All activity on the site comes down to drug trafficking.

The Hub

A sad English-language forum about everything that is not allowed on the white fluffy Internet. The vast majority of comments are in the For Beginners, Darknet In General and Off Topic sections, which seems to hint at the quality of the audience and discussions. Doesn't work without JavaScript. The Vendors section contains dull attempts at self-promotion of a huge number of drug dealers and strained, monotonous reviews of various drug markets. God, how tiring this is.

Closed hacker forums and sites

Hacker threads can be found here and there, but specialized forums are mostly unfriendly, and even free registration is rare. For example, entry to Hell, one of the most famous forums, costs 0.1 BTC (about $60).

Hell

GroundZero, SiphON and BlackHat look open at first glance, but are suspiciously empty. There is no doubt that all the most interesting things are hidden in sections that are not visible to the average visitor.

When registering on most of these forums, they ask you to enter an invitation code, and even if you own it, it is not a fact that all threads will be immediately open to you. There are quite a few public sections on the 0day forum, but you can rest assured that the main movement here, too, happens in sections that you can’t get to from the street.

0day

Very little remains in the public domain. The most popular topic is carding: bays, CVV, cashing out for various payment systems, ways to bypass antifraud, discussions about where to get dumps. In general, combat crobbers from Carder Planet will be a little bored here, but if you are simply interested in the topic, you will definitely learn something new: read the FAQ and click on the links for beginners that the community generously shares.

As for the other sections in the public, it’s a real disappointment: the chance of finding 0day is generally lower than on clearnet. But you can look at the Accounts and Database Dumps section, sometimes you see familiar words like VK or Rambler.

Of course, hacker groups also have personal sites on the dark web. As an example, you can look at CyberGuerrilla, The Hack Lair, Hacker4Hire and Hackmasters, but, to be honest, there is nothing special to catch there. The only thing that stands out is the Anonymous International exchange, where you can take part in auctions where the contents of the accounts of Russian officials are raffled off.

Weapons, espionage, special operations

Runion

Russian Onion Union is the most popular and educational Russian-language dark web forum, specializing in defense and self-defense. In the “Weapons” section you can find basic concepts and FAQs on weapons, instructions and books on making homemade protective equipment, calculations of the power of explosives, discussions of military equipment, weapons and ammunition, lessons on self-defense and sabotage, as well as warnings from knowledgeable people about weapons web -forums that sell information about their visitors.

The “Security precautions” section discusses methods of wiretapping, surveillance, detection and protection against them, typical mistakes of beginner anonymous users and high-profile mistakes of famous terrorists. There are FAQs, rules and advice on safe behavior in different countries of the world, as well as ways to circumvent official prohibitions, hide potential evidence and “cover your tracks”. An instruction called “ Sanitation Day”, listing ways to maintain personal information cleanliness, will be useful to any visitor, even if he came to the forum with the most innocent intentions.

The “Information Protection” section will tell you about methods of encrypting and hiding traffic, secure services and utilities, as well as ways to increase the bulletproofness of some popular programs, devices and web servers. A topic called “Tails: FAQ”, explaining what The Amnesic Incognito Live System is, will be an excellent start for an anonymous person taking his first steps.

Raegdan's Fukken Saved

A Russian-language archive containing full and partial dumps of some clearnet sites that were “cleaned” at one time. There is a lot of interesting stuff here for gun lovers.

Dump of the steelrats.org weapons forum, storing content as of the end of 2012. The forum contains a certain amount of materials on the handicraft design of weapons, special equipment and reconnaissance equipment. You can compare it with Runion and appreciate how pathetic Anonymous looked at that time.
Drawings, photo sets and video instructions for 3D printing homemade weapons, saved from the defunct website of the American James Patrick. The weapon, however, is only suitable for self-defense, because it is plastic.
A young rebel's guide to forming his own armed gang: The ABCs of Domestic Terrorism, Guerrilla Warfare, and the Urban Guerrilla's Manual. Of course, after reading these books you won’t turn out to be any kind of “urban guerrilla” (partisans don’t really read books in general), but this can help you better understand the psychology of bandits and avoid contact with them if mass unrest occurs.

Cryptostorm

Tor version of the forum of the VPN provider of the same name, Cryptostorm, located in Iceland. Quite an informative English-language resource containing discussions on protecting and encrypting information about personal life and movements. Basically, of course, it contains sections devoted to the work of VPN Cryptostorm and the development of their utility for “absolute protection” Cryptostorm Widget. The Stormphone section contains small but valuable information and discussions on the topic of data protection on mobile devices.

Black Market

A store that positions itself as “Number One on the Tor Network” and behaves almost like it’s legal. The owners claim that they provide a worldwide quality guarantee, the weapon is tested and can be replaced if it fails (within one week), shipping is already included in the prices, and ten free rounds are included with delivery. In a word, an epic and very beautiful scam, the impression of which is not spoiled even by the golden Desert Eagle listed in the list of goods. Indeed, suddenly someone wants to anonymously and secretly buy a pistol in order to show it off to their friends. Why not.

Black Market Guns

In contrast to the previous one, this is a real gun store located in the USA and legally selling US-approved weapons, parts, spare parts and ammunition. Contains 26 positions, among which there is even a pair of night vision devices. The owners silently bypass all issues of legalizing the purchase on the buyer’s side, offering only delivery via FedEx. Shot item and assembly instructions included. The official email on tutanota.com also makes us believe in the seriousness of the proposal. But, of course, we didn’t check.

No Background Check Gun Store

A store of unknown origin (we suspect the owners are from the USA, but there is no confirmation anywhere), positioning itself as “the largest catalog of weapons on the Deep Web.” The number of items is truly impressive: owners offer a choice of 570 pistols, 230 rifles and 30 pump-action shotguns. The choice is so great that there is a catalog search. Only three facts confuse us: the large number of positions in the sections, mail on gmail.com and the most famous manufacturers in each category. Too beautiful to be true.

Euro Guns and UK Guns

Two stores of the same owner, operating from Europe (presumably the Netherlands) and the UK, respectively. The owner carefully offers customers registration (why?), a referral program with a 1% deduction (oh, that's why), several ways to buy bitcoins for cash and free shipping. The assortment is small and absolutely identical, which suggests the presence of a common owner (and most likely, one person who is neither in the UK nor in Europe). If you successfully purchase something here (which is very unlikely), don’t forget to give us 1% for the tip!

MaskRabbit

A fun site that bills itself as “an anonymous agency for real world transactions.” Specializes in delivery, theft, espionage, sabotage, banditry and hacking. At the same time, it immediately amuses us with the fact that it declares to work “only with professional agents,” while simultaneously offering to send an application to join the ranks of these same “agents.” Rest, 47th, a worthy replacement has been found for you - you see, a letter has arrived from Vasya from Voronezh!

C'thulhu

An even more fun site, the name of which already speaks of the high professional level of its creators. The intentions of the “organized crime group C’thulhu” are so serious that they have to explain why you should hire them and specifically through Tor. To the reasonable question “Where are the proofs, Billy? We need proofs!” the developers answer convincingly: we delete all proofs after completing the order (for your own safety), and our customers have absolutely no time to sit on forums and respond to any letters. Nuff said.

However, the degree of fun is somewhat reduced by the presence of a public PGP key, email on bitmessage.ch and a detailed price list. Perhaps behind the deliberately ridiculous, eye-catching façade there is still a serious business hidden.

Besa Mafia

The site of an active Albanian mafia group is not at all funny. Open only after making sure there are no children nearby.

Besa Mafia operates in the United States, Canada, Europe and many other countries, offering such brutal services as debt collection (with self-harm), murder for intimidation (however, covert elimination too), setting cars and houses on fire, as well as selling unregistered weapons. In sections of the site you can find instructions on maintaining anonymity when ordering, a step-by-step description of the secure order payment process, a price list, FAQ and even a disclaimer stating that Besa Mafia services are provided solely for the purpose of protecting the client from the threat looming over him. To place an order, you need to indicate the contact of a person who is already a member of the group, otherwise you yourself may become the next target. The creators of the site also state that they are not performers: they are intermediaries and receive 20% of the amount for this. The performer receives 80%.

Well, did you believe it? Convincing enough? And now the truth: this site is a police scam. Besa Mafia administrators leak correspondence with “customers” and contacts of “performers” to law enforcement agencies in different countries. If you are paranoid, you might have suspected this even while viewing the “Video” section: the videos posted there are simple clips from American news, which are pulled from YouTube and do not work without JavaScript. However, after the Silk Road leak, most sites on Tor are similar scams.

Other useful things

Dead Drop- a service for transmitting encrypted messages. To register, you need a PGP key, which will also help you leave the message without an addressee. Those who wish to read it will be able to enter your public key, and the service will display the text.

Deep Web Radio. Considering that there are no particular problems with music on the “pure web”, the existence of an underground radio station is not easy to justify. But nevertheless it exists. You can listen to one of the five “broadcasts” and be pleased that you are doing it through Tor.

Bitcoin Block Explorer, a mirror of Blockchain.info - a site that helps track Bitcoin transactions.

Keybase- Keybase.io mirror. It allows you to associate your PGP public keys with a user profile. It doesn't hurt to register, but remember that Keybase is notorious for having a long virtual queue that you have to wait in before you can send an invitation.

Cryptome- a mirror of the legendary website about privacy and cryptography Cryptome.org. The last time it was synchronized was in 2013, but while the main site has not disappeared, the point of using a hidden service instead is questionable.

Total

Of course, it is impossible to take and survey the entire dark web. First of all, because two thousand links are still two thousand links and it’s not easy to go through them all (and it’s not necessary). You probably got the general idea, and hopefully the questions “what to see?” and “where to start?” we answered.

The second, even more important point is that the “dark” in the word “darknet” still implies that the sites are hidden from outsiders and it is impossible to get to them at a swoop. No amount of indexing will save you, and here you need an individual approach.

In general, the open part of the dark web is so reminiscent of the Internet of the nineties, with its characteristic anti-design and general carelessness, that nostalgia just hits. The main differences: there are much fewer sites in Onion and they are much more criminal. But here you can, as if in the good old days, surf the net and feel the wind of freedom blowing from all sides!

Post your links in the comments!

Surprised we missed some cool sites? Do you know interesting details that are not in this article? Leave your opinion using the form below, and the editors will take it into account in future materials.