Growing up, I understood the dark web as something associated with hackers and online criminals. The deep web is part of the internet that requires special software to access. You can not find dark web pages returned in your search engine. Here, we will discuss how to safely browse the deep web in case you want to.
What is the dark web?
This is a part of the World Wide Web that is not discoverable by means of standard search engines, including password-protected or dynamic pages and encrypted networks.
The dark web or deep web and as you know is a scary place and full of skilled cybercriminals. It, therefore, becomes necessary to secure yourself
while visiting this wild part of the internet.
Here are some of the precautions you must follow before accessing the deep web.
Secure Your Browser
Securing your browser must be your top priority as hackers can exploit it to gain access to your machine. Here are some tips:
- If a website doesn’t use HTTPS, don’t use it.
- Disable JavaScript using NoScript plugin
- Disable all the plugins as they can be used to track/exploit your system
- Don’t use search Engines like Google which track you. Instead, go for DuckDuckGo which doesn’t keep the records or inject tracking cookies into your browser
- If you download something from the dark web it is ok but consider opening it in a sandbox or a virtual machine.
- Don’t use torrent because torrent uses a peer to peer connection instead use a TOR network.
- Don’t maximize TOR browser’s windows as it can be used to determine the screen size of your device.
Further steps to secure your browser
Enter about: config in your Mozilla Firefox browser tab and press enter. Then make the following changes:
javascript.enabled false
network.http.sendRefererHeader network.http.sendSecureXSiteReferrer false
extensions.torbutton.saved.sendSecureXSiteReferrer false
network.cookie.cookieBehavior 2browser.cache.memory.enable false
Related Article: This is how hackers are targeting mobile users
Secure Your Operating System
If your operating systems are easy to hack then it could be a
problem. Here is how to secure them:
- Don’t use windows because windows are really very easy to exploit, rather use Linux.
- It’s good to use tor in a virtual machine so you can minimize the damage in case you get infected by some malware.
- Use a firewall.
- Keep your system up to date.
- Secure Your Identity and the most important thing is to hide your identity.
Here is how to hide your identity before accessing the deep web.
- If you have to sign up for something, use a disposable email service such as throwawaymail.
- Choose usernames and passwords carefully. They should not have any kind of link to your real identity.
- Send messages in chat rooms only when it’s necessary and do not reveal any kind of information.
- You will eventually find scam sites and phishing sites, so use your mind and stay away from them.
- Don’t do something which might grab the attention of legal authorities like watching child porn.
- If you have to upload an image somewhere, wipe its existing data first. And don’t upload any photos which reveal anything about your personal life, like the color of your cat.
Other Security measures
- Get a new laptop
- Get a new USB and install Tails in it. Tails is a Linux distro dedicated to security and privacy.
- Now install tor and set TOR browser’s security setting to high.
- Follow all the security measures we have discussed above.
As you can see, browsing the deep web is one risky adventure. Unless otherwise, we strongly advise against visiting the deep web. In case you have no option but to visit it, follow the above security measures.