This would be the part of an iceberg beneath the water, much larger than the surface web. In fact, this hidden web is so large that it’s impossible to discover exactly how many pages or websites are active at any one time. Get Avast BreachGuard for Mac to protect your privacy and keep your personal data from falling into the wrong hands.
We review and list tools and products without bias, regardless of potential commissions. They use pseudonymous wallets, privacy coins (like Monero), mixers, chain-hopping, and non-KYC platforms to obscure transaction trails. Cybersecurity experts should pay close attention to these trends, as they often indicate emerging threats and profit-generating tactics among the cybercriminal forums. Active for a decade since 2014, it is a widely used credit card shop used to source stolen credit card information such as dumps, CVVs, Wholesale Accounts. The Abacus Market links to the new dark web marketplace sections and took over much of the vacuum left by the AlphaBay takedown. Believe it or not, some dark web marketplaces have pretty advanced systems for building trust.
Jump Links
I tested all the website links on The Hidden Wiki and almost all of them work (I was able to access sites like Deep Web Radio and ProPublica without any issues). The Hidden Wiki is the best way to start browsing the dark web because it contains dozens of links to popular .onion sites. Sci-Hub has nothing to do with science-fiction literature, but with science itself.
But human trafficking, illegal pornography featuring underaged victims, money laundering, and assassinations are also examples of the darkest corners on the dark web. Silk Road became one of the most famous online black markets on the dark web for illegally selling drugs. The majority of the web is called the “deep web” (often referred to as the “invisible” or “hidden” web).
More Ways To Stay Safe On The Dark Web
Your real information could be exposed at these nodes, allowing third parties to intercept your dark web activity. That’s why we recommend connecting to VPN before accessing Tor—VPN encryption protects your data, and changing your IP adds an extra layer of privacy to protect you. If you want to access the Tor network on your iPhone or iPad, you can use the Onion Browser app. The mobile app uses DuckDuckGo as its default search engine and is supported by the Orbit framework to provide secure access to the Tor network.
That means you may violate copyright laws while downloading books, so use a VPN to protect yourself from any legal repercussions if you have a dire need to use it. Sci-hub has more than 80 million research documents, and more than 80% of the database contains journal research articles. Since these pages would otherwise be behind paywalls, it stands to reason that this would go against copyright laws.
Safe Dark Web Links To Explore
Naturally, this makes the dark web a breeding ground for illegal activity. But onion sites can also serve nobler goals, like providing access to information and independent journalism in countries with government censorship. Encrypted communication channels on the dark web allow users to message back and forth in an anonymous online environment. However, some surface web platforms like ProtonMail offer encrypted email services in addition to dark web versions that enable people residing in more repressive areas to communicate freely. There are thousands of websites on the dark web, many—but not all—of which are illicit marketplaces selling stolen personal data.
The Best Dark Web Links — Safe & Verified Sites In 2025
On the regular web, domains such as are translated into their actual IP addresses via the domain name system (DNS). ProPublica is a journalism outlet that has its own dark web version of its site. In fact, they were one of the very first major news outlets to do so. ProPublica’s work is all legal, so the .onion website isn’t much different from what you would find online.
Forest VPN: Your Gateway To Safe Browsing
In this article, we will unpack everything you should know about what the dark web is, how it works, how to surf it safely, and more. Archive.today collects snapshots of websites and archives them for later viewing. If this sounds similar to The Wayback Machine, the concept is indeed the same.
We And Our Partners Process Data To Provide:
The VPN connection will route your online activity through a different server, masking your activity from your internet service provider. If you don’t have or use a VPN already, we have roundups of the best VPNs overall and the best free VPNs if you’re on a budget. Accessing the dark web is not illegal in the United States, but naturally, engaging in illegal activity while on the dark web can get you in hot water. For example, last June, two men were charged by the federal government for operating the Empire Market, which was a dark web marketplace where people could buy and sell illegal items and services. As long as you are not looking for anything illegal in the real world, it’s perfectly legitimate to use the dark web to find whatever you need.
- If the VPN connection fails, the automatic kill switch will kick in, temporarily breaking your traffic.
- You don’t want this suspicion because of the darknet’s reputation and notoriety.
- This layer includes publicly accessible platforms such as news websites, e-commerce stores, and social media.
- When people go on about the so-called dark web, they’re usually talking about onion sites, which aren’t searchable via Google or accessible via standard browsers.
- Tor and I2P are the two commonly used tools for accessing the dark web to provide anonymity.
Is It Safe To Visit The Dark Web On An IOS Or Android Device?
The developers of ProtonMail recommend using the Tor browser to visit the dark web version of the service. This ensures greater security and privacy, making it much more difficult for snoopers to get in. To send a message or image via ZeroBin, you just need to copy the desired content and paste it into ZeroBin’s editor. The editor will then create a link for you to forward to the sender.
It’s great how the site has a Security Scenarios section too, where it offers personalized security tips for specific audiences (activists, academic researchers, journalists, and more). This is a free service that lets you upload images to share them with other people. It’s great for people who live in or travel through restrictive countries to securely access and use image hosting and sharing services, which might be unavailable.
Minimize Or Rescale Your Tor Browsing Window
A reliable VPN encrypts your traffic before it enters the Tor network, preventing surveillance from your ISP or malicious actors. During my tests, ExpressVPN’s military-grade encryption and verified no-logs policy provided consistent protection against tracking and monitoring. The kill switch feature also ensures your real IP stays hidden if your connection drops.
The popularity of the dark web with criminals makes it a perfect way for undercover police officers to communicate. And when you consider how many pages just one Gmail account will create, you understand the sheer size of the Deep Web. People operating within closed, totalitarian societies can use the Dark Web to communicate with the outside world.
You’ll get unbiased, organic search results without getting any of your browsing behavior logged. Using DuckDuckGo over Tor will also let you see onion sites and normal pages in your search results. Tor’s “hidden services” are the most popular darknet, so we’re focusing on it here. But there are other darknets designed to serve other purposes, like file sharing networks designed for secret sharing of pirated software and media files. Perhaps the best-known thing you can buy on the Dark Web is information collected in what seems like the almost daily data breaches we read about in the news.
If the traffic passes through a Tor exit node run by a law enforcement agency, they will only see the IP address that the VPN assigned, not your real IP. As a result, it would be difficult to locate you or trace the dark web activity back to you. This adds an extra layer of protection to thwart tracking and monitoring in case the traffic passes through a compromised exit node. Discovered pages are indexed in an extensive database and ranked based on numerous factors. When you search a term (or query) in a web browser, the search engine combs through the database to find relevant results and serves them up on SERPs.
