What lurks in the Deep Web?

If we were to perform an exercise to display visually the size of the World Wide Web, we could use the image of an iceberg to represent its depth: The visible tip of the iceberg (25%) could be likened to the Surface Web, which is regulated by standard search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and which most users are familiar with. On the other hand, the submerged part of the iceberg could be likened to the Deep Web (75%), where paradoxically almost all the information that the Web can provide is hidden, and where users can browse anonymously without requiring advanced computing knowledge.


How can we access the Deep Web?

To access the Deep Web, you need to download a particular browser that functions with its own domains (ending in .onion). The domains that this browser provides are located at different depths within the Web and are constantly changing. It is precisely this fact that enables the user to browse anonymously both the Surface Web and the Deep Web, maintaining his or her privacy.


The Dark Web is where criminal activity takes place

Jordi Serra, the UOC's web security expert, points out that with this browser "we can travel anywhere in the Web without leaving any trace. Many users take advantage of this feature to reserve the right to perform clandestine, illegal or downright criminal activities".

At this level of depth, "we find people who traffic in arms, drugs or organs, pimps, kidnappers and all sorts of illegal documents and web pages". This area is called the Dark Web. It is a place where the web domains are encrypted and change frequently, making it very difficult to follow them.

Professor Jordi Serra explains that it is very risky to access the Deep Web using the browser and does not recommend accessing it to find academic information, learning resources or other documents that may have legal protection.


Risk of infections

One of the drawbacks of the Deep Web is that non-expert users have no guarantee that they will access the information that they really want to find. This means that "they may contact unwanted users, forums with illegal subject matter, viruses and Trojan horses which will very probably be able to access their server," warns Serra.


Jihadism in the Deep Web

Andrés Ortiz, journalist and author of the book #Yihad.Com l'Estat Islàmic ha conquerit Internet i els mitjans de comunicació (#Jihad. How the Islamic State has conquered the Internet and media) (Editorial UOC), has investigated the channels through which the Islamic State operates in the dark depths of information. He says that the terrorist group moves like a fish in water in the Deep Web and uses it for recruitment.

On the basis of his experience, the Deep Web and the Jihadists seem to be made for each other. According to this expert, "the information is enhanced both by the barbaric, savage content disseminated there and by the activity in Jihadist forums". The possibility of browsing without leaving any trace "provides opportunities for all sorts of criminal activities: arms, medicines and drug smuggling; Jihadist recruiting and funding networks...", concludes the journalist.