Dark Web access tools

The Dark Web is often confused with the Deep Web, but it is essential to understand that these two are different entities. In simple terms, the Dark Web is a unique portion of the Deep Web, approximately 0.01 percent of it. There are a few distinguishing characteristics that a website must meet to be considered a Dark Web site. A Dark Web site must only be able to be accessed anonymously through a specialized browser such as TOR, Freenet, or I2P. Specifically, websites accessed through the TOR browser have the .onion domain suffix, a special top-level domain name referring to an anonymous onion service (Porup, 2019). The following screenshot shows what the full onion URL of the popular search engine DuckDuckGo looks like (DeepOnionWeb, 2019):

Figure 1.4 – DuckDuckGo onion URL

TOR is the most popular and most used Dark Web browser. As of October 2022, it has approximately 2 million users worldwide (TOR Metrics, 2022). A simplistic interpretation of TOR is that of an open source browser, which is actually an adaption of the Firefox browser. In a TOR network, thousands of volunteers around the world run relays (servers) that route traffic. The traffic is relayed and encrypted multiple times as it passes over the TOR network (TOR Project, 2021). Only a handful of alternative technologies can match TOR’s sophisticated features. The fact that all TOR users look alike on the internet makes TOR one of the most elite cyberspace technologies of all time.

Another popular Dark Web tool is I2P. I2P is an anonymous network like TOR, and it utilizes the end-to-end encryption standard. This standard is a secure communication method that stops other people from accessing packets of data while they are transmitted from one end system to another (Astolfi, Kroese, and Oorschot, 2015). The main difference between TOR and I2P is that I2P does not rely on a centralized database of server nodes, as it uses garlic routing rather than TOR’s onion routing. Garlic routing is an improved browsing technology and an extension of onion routing, and like garlic cloves, it works by encrypting multiple messages together into a layered encryption standard. The garlic technology increases data speed and makes it more difficult for attackers to perform traffic analysis. I2P’s decentralized approach has two significant advantages: better scalability and no trusted central party (Ali et al., 2016).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more of people’s everyday activities have taken place at home. They include distance education, virtual offices, digital entertainment, online shopping, and doctor visits. However, this problem has increased the risk of attacks through the internet. The FBI stated that the number of cyberattacks reported from January to May 2020 was nearly the same as the number of cyberattacks for the entire year of 2019.

Several factors can affect potential victims’ vulnerabilities, including the following:

• Individual behavior
• Online activities
• Personal traits
• Attitudes about technology

It’s thus crucial for mental health services to know about the possible effects of cyberattacks and patient risks. This scenario can include the impact of internet-based mental health services during the coronavirus outbreak.