dark web
termdark websecurityhacking
The subset of the deep web reachable only through anonymity networks, where sites hide their location as well as their content.
Its defining technology is onion routing via Tor, whose hidden services (the .onion addresses) conceal server and visitor alike. The result is genuinely mixed: whistleblower drop boxes, censored-press mirrors, and privacy forums share the space with the marketplaces the headlines fixate on, from Silk Road onward, which trade in illicit goods and settle in cryptocurrency. Its honest framing is a tool, not a place, and anonymity is what it provides to everyone who arrives, for any reason.
Also known as: dark websites, dark markets, darknet markets, hidden services