So has anyone heard about The Deep Web?

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So has anyone heard about The Deep Web? For those who don't know, the deep web represents a gargantuan part of the internet which is not accessible through regular searches via google or other search engines. In other words, it's basically a private section of server space to share data off record. All that wiki leaks stuffed that leaked a couple months back? That's been on deep web for years. Ever seen a movie and see the bad guy loggin' into some weird looking private server thingy? That's all real. To put it in a simple picture, here it is: This is a graphical representation of the amount of data which exists on the regular internet as opposed to that of the deep internet. Also, try this on for size: · Public information on the deep Web is currently 400 to 550 times larger than the commonly defined World Wide Web. · The deep Web contains 7,500 terabytes of information compared to nineteen terabytes of information in the surface Web. · The deep Web contains nearly 550 billion individual documents compared to the one billion of the surface Web. · More than 200,000 deep Web sites presently exist. · Sixty of the largest deep-Web sites collectively contain about 750 terabytes of information — sufficient by themselves to exceed the size of the surface Web forty times. · On average, deep Web sites receive fifty per cent greater monthly traffic than surface sites and are more highly linked to than surface sites; however, the typical (median) deep Web site is not well known to the Internet-searching public. · The deep Web is the largest growing category of new information on the Internet. · Deep Web sites tend to be narrower, with deeper content, than conventional surface sites. · Total quality content of the deep Web is 1,000 to 2,000 times greater than that of the surface Web. · Deep Web content is highly relevant to every information need, market, and domain. · More than half of the deep Web content resides in topic-specific databases. · A full ninety-five per cent of the deep Web is publicly accessible information — not subject to fees or subscriptions. What lies beneath the surface is a who's who of hackers, scientists, drug dealers, astronomers, assassins, physicists, Government officials, terrorists, perverts, data miners, kidnappers, sociologists, etc. As you can tell, the party goes across the entire moral spectrum. Generally, terrorist networks, spy agencies, drug dealers, assassins-for-hire, and those looking for child porn lurk around those parts. There's a Hidden Wiki, there, and on the wiki they're categories of links. There are things like blogs, forums (from normal to revolutionary to blatantly illegal), Tor-enabled instant messaging and chat, anonymous file hosting, anonymous financing, information on computer security/anonymity, info on warez/cracks/hacking, books and information exchanges, music, links to more info about supporting the Tor movement... Basically, stuff that anonymity enthusiasts may be interested in. I personally wouldn't trust many of the files on there, though. This is a segment of the hidden wiki. Then there's the VERY illegal stuff. From memory of what he told me, there are links to international drug markets, prostitution rings, assassin markets, black market products, and illegal pornography. There is a darkside to the Darknet, and this is only skimming the surface of it. The tools are out there and they're readily available to anyone. I'm not going to discuss how to access the deep web because quite frankly, i haven't ventured into it myself. BUT THIS is the real deal: Unless you know what you're doing I would stay away from the deep web. Your peers on Deep Web aren't quite like surface web - they're much more sophisticated and can exploit your machine for information and assume your identity if you don't know how to properly safeguard yourself. With that being said, I wish to limit the discussion to the deep web rather than a tutorial on how to access the deep web. I find this subject to be utterly fascinating which needs to be studied further. Whilst there are tons of bad seeds who inhabit this deep web, there's also good seeds who wish to spread their information quickly and most often anonymously, to avoid legal or ethical ramifications. To those who have accessed the deep web, what are your thoughts? Were you able to learn and discover new things? Sickened by the content? Excited by the possibilities? Thoughts on the entire platform? MOD EDIT: useful post on the subject, before it gets lost:  Taf the Ghost wrote: This sounds FAR more cloak and dagger than it really is. As I've had Top Site access a few times in the past, let me dispel a few things. The numbers are way off. There's Zottabyte range data on the internet ( for a little more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exabyte ). The number they were trying to pump up was the "stored" data, which is pretty big on the "Deep Web" but not as big compared to the normal web as you think. Though YouTube itself is dealing in far more total bandwidth usage than just static server storage. I wouldn't be surprised if YouTube is servering 250 Petabytes a month at this point in bandwidth. They're using big numbers of *stored* data vs used data. Most of this stuff is just stored on a server with maybe a few people a month accessing it. Just think how much bandwidth YouTube has used to serve a Justin Beiber song with 300+ million views. That's a whole lot of bandwidth, but it's really only a 30 meg file. A lot of this stuff is also very easy to get to, assuming you know to skip trying to find it with Google. Most of this stuff is in a few areas: IRC channels, Private Hamachi networks, DirectConnect (or whatever the newest flavor of server-connected P2P client is), private Websites with independent Torrent servers, Open-Protocol P2P networks, Private FTP networks and on VPNs. (I've also heard there's still an active trading regime on UseNet, but I haven't been on there in ages) Most of the information isn't necessarily illegal either. A lot of it is, but not as much as you think. Most of the data being moved around the "Deep Web" is video & image content. A lot of it is porn. But that shouldn't surprise anyone, now should it? There's private file trading networks for whatever your flavor of content is. I was in the Anime side of things, so there were a lot of servers you moved around data to host for sharing it. There's rented servers all over the place serving this data to whatever system you're supporting. TOR is a Firefox mod that uses multiple server-hopping technology to avoid detection. It was designed for Chinese dissidents at first, but it's morphed into simply being a way to hide on the internet. Mostly because the only people that can really track you back through TOR, if they want, is the Chinese or NSA. So you don't want to piss off either of those, really. In a slightly ironic twist, most of the active sections of this got started because of MIT. For a long while, MIT had about the world's largest on-site internet pipe. The CS students figured out fun ways of using it. It pretty much made Video work in IRC, which started off all of the video sharing of large files. This also hit around the same time as large numbers of people had access to Broadband, which made most of it possible. The really, really "deep" places exist in 2 forms. There are "Top sites" and then there's the Kiddy Porn areas. The Kiddy Porn areas are actually very easy to avoid... because you have to work really hard to find them. And fuck every single person involved in those rings. Really, I hope they rot in hell. You'll only ever find your way there if you're looking for them. And if you are, please turn yourself into the cops or get professional help... now. The "Top Sites" are the more interesting bit in all of this. I'm not sure what protocols they're using at the moment, but it's most likely still nearly all FTPs. These are very large networks of stored data. They've got massive pipes and are well funded, though mostly by donation. This is where things like CAM'd movies, brand new DVDrips and the like type of data work their way around. After they've moved through the Top Sites, they end up in IRC channels & on Torrent trackers. Top Sites are effectively how the "Scene" gets out their data. It's pretty effective at doing it. So, you've likely interacted with these types of "Deep Web" stuff already. If you're on a forum with an internal, required-registration section that links to Torrents, you're in the "Deep Web". Or if your College or Business has a private network for data... you're on the Deep Web. It's not as cloak & dagger as the initial post wants to make out, but it is there. But, if you want certain data, there's a good chance it *does* exist somewhere.