You don’t have to know how to access the dark web, however you should take a strong interest in it. After all just because you don’t know how to access it, doesn’t mean that your information isn’t already out there and in play. Almost as frequent as gun shootings in America, we see corporate data hacks hit the news. You may be one of the very few lucky ones who haven’t personally been effected by any of the data breaches, that does not mean that in the future you will be so lucky. For the rest of us however our data may be being traded or sold all over the dark web as we speak for just a couple bucks.

There are many reasons someone might want to learn how to access the dark web that has nothing to do with trying to get your data. Maybe you’re looking to cruise the internet anonymously, or maybe you’re looking to educate yourself so you know how to protect yourself from identity theft. Whatever the case may be. Here is the low down.

Dark Web 101

Alright so, in order to explain what the dark web is you first have to know that it is just a subset of a larger “deep web”. The deep web in a nutshell is online content that is hidden (i.e. you can’t find it on search engines). Sites on the dark web sometimes require specific software to access them (we’ll get to that).

Your next question might be: “But isn’t the ‘dark web’ illegal and full of criminals?” … well… kinda…

The dark web is designed to allow users to keep their anonymity online which can then be used for both legal and illegal purposes. Now with the cloak of anonymity it brings with it a clear and unavoidable criminal presence. This includes drug sales, illegal pornography and even human trafficking.

Would it surprise you to know that the whole concept of the dark web was developed by the United States Navy? It seems back in the mid 90s, US intelligence sought to protect its online information and communications. It was then known as, The Onion Routing project. It now goes by the name Tor.

They then released it into public domain with the concept that the more its used the more it conceals the military communications. The comms get “lost in the sauce” as it were.

Accessing The Dark Web

The easiest and thus the most widely used method to access the dark web is the software known as Tor (previously mentioned). The Tor network is a free software that anyone with an internet connection can download (see? easy!). Here’s the kicker… once you are using the Tor browser (or any of the many other options) you will find access the web is much like it used to be back in the days of dial-up. Everything takes a while to load as it bounces around the globe to different servers meant to keep you anonymous.

How Can I Tell If My Information Is On the Dark Web?

While a lot of the goings on, on the dark web are completely legal and used by people who are completely paranoid about their privacy. The anonymity will always attract the worst scum you can think of.
CheckPeople has made it simple and lightning fast to do an in-depth Background Check on yourself! Which will include a Dark Web Scan. This Dark Web Scan will alert you of any information that is currently being compromised (if any). It will also alert you moving forward if your information becomes available on the dark web! Information such as your credit card number, your bank account information and even your social security number. Staying vigilant in an ever growing digital world is what is required of us these days.

Check your records and make sure you are safe!

The post Accessing The Dark Web appeared first on CheckPeople Blog.

Prior to services like CheckPeople being available, attaining public records literally meant getting in your car and driving down to the courthouse. You would then petition (formally request) the records and pay a fee for each record you were wanting to pull. Then you’d get in the queue for the clerk to actually locate and pull the records you have requested. Then they will need to make copies for you and mail them to you… YIKES!! What a headache! By the time you actually got the documents in hand, who knows how much time may have gone by. Not very productive!

Thanks to services like CheckPeople, accessing the records you need has really never been easier. But access is only half the story. CheckPeople goes beyond to make sure that the data you receive is easily understood and usable. Did I forget to mention INSTANT!?!? You bet it is!

CheckPeople Products & Features

Personal Information, Known Aliases & Date of Birth

This section includes a full summary of personal information, including, but not limited to, full legal first, middle, and last name, known aliases, date of birth, age, phone number, current address and/or any other contact information.

Phone Numbers

This subsection of the Personal Information section will find all associated phone numbers. It is not uncommon to find that more than one of the phone numbers listed are current and active for the individual. Learning about hidden phone numbers can be helpful in getting to the truth in a lot of cases.

Email Addresses

This is also a subsection of Personal Information. CheckPeople search finds all associated email addresses with the subject of the search. Some may have gone inactive ages ago, however it’s good to look into all of them.

Employment History

A good means of identity verification is checking to see whether or not their employment history matches up with what they have reported to you. Sometimes you can spot gaps in employment that really tell a different story all together.

Related People

Under the Related People section is a list of people who are associated with the person you’ve searched, including parents, siblings, family members, roommates, close friends, and other people known to the individual.

Current & Past Addresses

This section of your report provides a full history of known past and current addresses. The information is sourced from thousands of public records and compiled into a list. This may also include work addresses.

View a satellite picture of the current residence and explore the interactive map for census data in the neighborhood.

The best way to use this feature is on a desktop computer or laptop.

Criminal History

Our criminal history database compiles citation, arrest, and criminal records from jurisdictions across the country. Each county has its own processes and procedures regarding the release of criminal history information and how much of it is available through their databases.

These records are maintained and published by government agencies, and therefore may not be comprehensive or fully accurate. This information should be used wisely and as a starting point for your own due diligence and investigation.

Sex Offenders

In the Sex Offenders section, we list and map out known sex offenders living near the person you’ve searched. The report includes, but is not limited to, full name, physical description, mugshot, offense type and dates.

If you want to find out whether any sex offenders live in your area, enter your name in the search field above.

Financial Information

This section may shed light on the person’s financial situation. Here you will find possible bankruptcies, liens, judgements, foreclosures, UCC filings and evictions.

Personal Assets

This section includes assets owned by the person you’ve searched. Results may include real estate properties, vehicles, airplanes, and watercrafts.

In a messy divorce? In a lawsuit against someone personally? Want to make sure they are being upfront about all their personal assets? This is the report for you!

Businesses

This section includes possible business related information, including, but not limited to, employers, business affiliations, corporate filings, and trademarks. If they’ve registered a business or any trademarks you will see them listed here.

Social Media / Deep Web

This section contains possible online profiles on social media platforms and articles for the person you’ve searched. It will come up with a mix of different profiles. Some will match, some won’t. However this is important in uncovering hidden social media profiles!

Using CheckPeople.com

Some of the most common uses for CheckPeople are easy to list.

• Researching Online Dates
• Background Checks
• Locating Loved Ones
• Research Arrest Records
• Sex Offender Searches
• Self Checks

Whether you fall under one of these common reasons to use CheckPeople.com or if you have your own reasons for needing to access public records. You can be certain that CheckPeople makes it easy and painless! Do a search and get instant access right now!

The post CheckPeople: An In Depth Look At The Products & Features appeared first on CheckPeople Blog.

The public web

To better understand the dark web, it is essential to review some of the other layers of the internet starting with the public web, then the deep web, and finally, the dark web. The public web refers to any information that you can access or get using conventional search engines like Google or Yahoo. There are no restrictions as far as who can view this data, and it’s “publicly” available.

This layer of the internet is where most internet users spend much of their time. Also, this is the part of the internet where most websites are found, from school websites to company websites, and beyond. Another thing that is characteristic of the public web is that every activity made by users is logged on to a domain that shows the user IP address as well as the physical location.

The public web might be the most common layer of the internet, but it doesn’t make a significant portion of the internet as a whole. It only makes a very miniscule part.

The deep web

The deep web, on the other hand, makes up a massive chunk of the internet—almost 90 percent. The name “deep web” might sound scary or even something from a fictional movie, but it is a very moderate place to visit if you know what you are doing. In fact, you might be using the deep web right now, and not realize it!

Most of the sites that are in the deep web will probably turn up when you search something using conventional search engines like Google. It isn’t a super-secret layer of the internet or even one that is necessarily criminal or contains anything malicious.

The deep web includes websites that other people can’t access publicly, meaning they are behind some form of login. For instance, when you log in to use a school’s research library, this vast information bank is not publicly available. Any website that requires a login to access is a part of the deep web—and that’s a lot of sites. Many websites live both in the public web and deep web with portions viewable to everyone, and parts visible only to registered users.

The dark web

Now let’s take a look at the dark web, our primary concern. The dark web is the deepest layer of the internet and is entirely different from the other two layers. It is a hub for diverse criminal activities from modern-day slavery to the drug trade. Law enforcement agencies have identified the dark web as a hotspot for most of the illegal activities in the country as well as internationally.

It is a network of very intricate websites which are hidden—these are not sites that you’ll be able to find via a simple search on a regular browser. Unlike the public web, the dark web allows the user to hide their location as well as their identity. Users can protect their status by using fake usernames or pseudonyms as their screen tags. This option of hiding internet activity is, of course, desirable to the myriad of criminals in the world.

The question, therefore, arises: what is the difference between the dark web and other websites you can find on the public internet? The answer to this question is simpler than you might think. When you search something using the public web using Google or another search engine, the internet tracks all your activities.

This tracking means that somewhere your IP address, domain, and activity is logged for reference—even if you have cookies disabled and are in incognito mode. The Federal government can track your physical location anytime you use the public web. There is no secrecy as servers regularly share your information—or metadata as you will—for reasons of accountability.

However, on the dark web, when a user accesses the layer, no user metadata is recorded or shared by the servers, meaning when a user uses the dark web, he/she does so in an anonymous state. Another question, thus arises: how does the user hide their identity on the dark web? Or rather, how is it possible to use the dark web anonymously?

To answer this question, you must be acquainted with some of the terms used in the IT world. When you access the dark web, there are multiple connections which are encrypted. These intricate encrypted connections block servers from tracking your activity or location using your IP address. The authorities can’t locate your activity on the internet quickly if you use the dark web.

Law enforcement has, in the past, been successful in tracing people over the dark web. However, it is not an easy thing to do and often is impossible. This is the primary reason criminals use the dark web so frequently.

The intricacy of the dark web offers an excellent platform for illegal activities. Terrorists even use it to acquire some of their raw materials such as C-4 explosives for their bombs. Middle Eastern criminals, as well as Eastern European syndicates, have in the past, used the dark web to conduct slavery and prostitution, and likely still do.

How to access the dark web

It’s a misconception that accessing the dark web is difficult. It is actually pretty straightforward. There are many ways to do so, most of which involve a dark web browser. All a person needs to do is obtain one. These web browsers are easily downloadable over the internet and are free. The most commonly used option is called the Tor browser.

This dark web browser functions like any other browser. All you do is download it and install it on your device. After installation, open the browser, type in what you’re looking for as you would with any other search engine, and then search.

However, don’t be mistaken into thinking that finding stuff on the dark web is as easy as finding things on the public web. Many of the websites on the dark web are very repetitive and will, in most cases, give you the irrelevant information.

This difficulty in the dark web is a result of the inorganization found there. Unlike the public web, there isn’t any ranked index organization which makes searches very randomized and untargeted.

However, to overcome this problem, one might use the dark web search engines which give better and optimized results. A search engine like Uncensored Hidden Wiki will guide you into the content you are looking for, but there might be some illegal websites found in the results.

How to search the dark web

Not every activity in the dark web is malicious or with criminal intent. Some people use the dark web for recreational activities such as online chess clubs/communities or social media. For instance, BlackBook is a social media site in the dark web, and many users have compared it to Facebook.

How, then, do you search the dark web? There are many ways and methodologies as far as exploring the dark web. The intricacy and complexity of dark web require that you must have a different browser, such as the before-mentioned Tor browser. There is also special software to ensure that your information is not stolen or your computer hacked by criminals, but that’s an entirely different and complex topic that we won’t be covering today.

There are specialized search engines used by users in the dark web, but these engines are regularly being changed and advanced to optimize security. The world of cybersecurity is tricky and requires constant monitoring and upgrading because technology is continuously being challenged.

However, one thing that is constant about all dark web engines is that they all resemble the web searches of the late 20th century. The results of a dark web search also bring repetitive results, most of which are very irrelevant to a user’s needs. One of the best search engines used by users in the dark web is called Grams.

There is also another way of searching the dark web using link lists. The Hidden Wiki is the most common link list, but like the search engines, it is also unfulfilling. Timed out connections, as well as errors accessing the sites, are common. There is also a severe repetition of indices, meaning that most of the websites might turn up may not be relevant to your needs.

Once you find them, though, dark web sites are similar to public web sites beyond a few significant differences. One of the vital dissimilarities between the dark web and public web domains/sites is that they end with “.onion” instead of the conventional “.com” or “.co.”

The websites end with the suffix owing to the deep security algorithms protecting user data and information on the dark web. Therefore, a standard browser can’t access such a domain. This is why a unique browser, such as Tor, is necessary to access dark web sites.

Dark web sites are also made of both numerical and alphabetical characters making their memorization tough. The websites have different characters scrambled together to create a URL. In the dark web, it is common to find a URL that looks like this “gd5585w8w5w852wdwq6.onion”.

Many of dark web sites are also short-lived because criminals use them. To avoid facing the aftermath of their activities, scammers will often abandon their domains and create new ones to conduct new scams. However, the police and other law enforcement agencies are getting better in tracing these scammers over the dark web.

For instance, in 2017, Alpha Bay was successfully shut down by law enforcement agencies. This dark web site was the largest platform for the supply of contraband as well as other illegal activities on the internet at the time. However, the owners of the site were never found, and it is highly likely that they shifted to a new domain.

How to scan for your info on the dark web

A dark web scan involves monitoring the dark web to ascertain whether your information appears for sale there. This data might include things like stolen passwords, credit card numbers, personal information, and more.

A dark web scan can help you avoid cases of identity theft as well as being associated with criminal activities over the dark web. It can also help in preventing credit card fraud and other debts you may be held accountable for.

There are many ways to scan for your info on the dark web. CheckPeople offers unlimited scans for a low monthly fee. You can search for your data as often as you like, and even vet those who may be around you, such as prospective love interests, new employees, or babysitters. Click here to protect yourself with a dark web scan now.

There are also free services that you can use to scan the dark web. For instance, Troy Hunt invented an online platform called “Have I Been Pwned” where you can freely check to see whether your personal information is available on the dark web.

The website/scanning engine checks to see whether your passwords of email addresses appear in any of the upwards of 322 data dumps found in dark web sites. The service also can be set to notify you any time your email address appears in any of the information dumps in real time.

Unlike the usual dark web scanning software that promise to scan your social security numbers over the dark web, Hunt’s service only uses your email. The service a solid first step in checking whether your credentials have been leaked on the dark web.

Even using this service, though, it is always good to be careful. You should use unique passwords on every online platform you use. The use of unique passwords and credentials is essential, especially if criminals get a hold of your credentials in one platform. If the criminals hack you and you don’t have unique passwords, they will probably try a bunch of combinations to guess other passwords.

Many people claim that using different passwords might be dangerous, especially when you can’t remember your combination to a particular website. However, there are many secure password managers available, both free and paid. Some programs an even save you time by offering browser extensions that auto-enter your saved logins, passwords, and personal information, such as your address or phone number. A password manager will help you in storing and remembering all your passwords without the risk of losing the information to criminals.

By now, most people will think that a dark web scan is useful because after all, it checks whether your info is being used for criminal activity, right? But this is not always the case. Even if your data doesn’t come back in any of these scans, you should always assume you are at risk, especially by hackers.

The truth is, in our current society, cybersecurity is at its worst.

What to do when browsing the dark web and maintain your cybersecurity

It is no lie that the dark web is a hub for criminals who want to exploit your personal information. You need to be careful while using the dark web. While browsing, take steps to protect your data as well as your identity.

You also don’t want to poke around every website that you come across. The dark web, unlike the deep web, doesn’t have a lot of useful info because it is mostly used by criminal syndicates to conduct their activities without too much interference.

Because dark web browsers keep users, as well as the publishers, apart from by maintaining their anonymity, it is challenging to control some of the content in this internet layer. There is a myriad of activities going on, and therefore, it is impossible to keep track of some of the financial operations.

The dark web is an excellent place to maintain one’s anonymity and also an excellent place to retrieve valuable information. It can be a great place to create interaction groups based on your hobbies, such as playing chess, while protecting your privacy. In the same measure, the dark web is also a dangerous place for one to be roaming around carelessly because criminal syndicates use it. Browse with care.

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