Tor

A Dark Net Journey On How to Be Anonymous Online

John Smith
Introduction
I want to thank you and congratulate you for downloading the book, “TOR: A Dark Net
Journey on How to Be Anonymous Online”. This book has lots of actionable information
on how to unleash the full power of TOR to stay anonymous online.
In the recent times where such issues like doxing and swatting (check meanings below),
and even premature exposure of your details or identity have been on the rise, there has
been a growing demand and need for online anonymity.
All the same, everyone needs it; whether it’s about protecting your identity, not because
you are doing anything questionable or illegal but mainly because you want social safety
(especially if you are an introvert in an online community); you need to be invisible, alone
and feeling safe with the best tool to help you achieve all that.
Do you often experience personal harassment that constantly denies you the freedom of
expression? Or is the thought that ‘anything you say or do online may be used against you’
so crippling such that you limit yourself? Well, the good news is that there is hope; you
can limit what anyone out there could know about you by using tools specially designed
for guaranteeing your anonymity. One of the best tools of this kind is TOR.
With this book, you’ll learn everything you need to know about TOR- a free software and
also an open network that will defend you against network surveillance threatening your
personal freedom and privacy, traffic analysis, business activities and so much more.
Thanks again for downloading this book. I hope you enjoy it!
 Copyright 2016 by John Smith - All rights reserved.

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Tor
A Dark Net Journey On How to Be Anonymous Online
Introduction
TOR: A Basic Overview
What Is TOR?
The Underlying Insecurity: How The Internet Works
The Server-Client Relationship
TOR Is the Answer: But How?
Downloading And Installing TOR
Downloading For Linux
Adding The Tor Browser To Your Launcher Applications
Downloading For Windows 10
TOR & Networking: Understanding The Lingo
Going Deeper… How TOR Really Works
Types of Relays In TOR
What’s With The Onions?
How The Encryption Works
The Problem With Relays
The Tor Bridges
Can Anyone Really Find Every Bridge?
Adding Bridges To Your Tor Network
The Deep Web and The Hidden Services Of Tor
Difference Between Dark Web And Deep Web
Deep Web
The Dark Web
Be Careful!
What To Do:
Where To Start (In The Deep Web)
Tor Vs. VPN: Which Is Better?
How VPN works
Why Tor Is A Better Option
Conclusion
Wi-Fi Hacking
Wireless Hacking for Beginners - Step By Step
Introduction
Before we start learning the specifics of how to unleash the full power of TOR, it is
important that I start with the basics i.e. understanding what TOR is, as well as some other
vital information regarding the place of TOR in the world we live in today.

TOR: A Basic Overview

What Is TOR?
TOR refers to an anonymity tool that enables you to browse the web as an anonymous
person. The software was developed by a nonprofit organization, the Tor Project, which
advocates for individual anonymity on the internet.
It was initially referred to as the Onion Router since it is based on a technique called onion
routing that conceals information concerning your activity as the user. Ironically maybe,
the organization gets a lot of its funding from the US government that views the software
as a tool to foster democracy in the authoritarian states.
This brings out something very important- internet security. How does it really work?
The Underlying Insecurity: How The Internet Works

In order to understand how the software protects your identity as an internet user, you
need to understand how the internet works.
To get started, you need to understand that the internet is a sequence of connections
between computers. Originally, computers were isolated and could not communicate with
each other but as technology advanced, the computers became physically linked together
to create early networks. These networks still needed the computers to be somewhat close
to each other. Finally, as technology advanced even further, advances in fiber optics
facilitated the connection of networks across continents, which led to the birth of the
internet.
Let’s take the discussion further by understanding the server-client relationship, which is a
very critical feature about the internet.
The Server-Client Relationship

The data stored on the internet is usually housed in computers referred to as “servers”.
Your device, such as a PC, or smartphone that you use to access this information is
referred to as the client. The transmission lines connecting clients to servers come in a
range of forms, whether wireless signals or fiber optic cables, but they’re all connections.
In as much as clients start connections to receive data from servers, the flow goes both
ways; the data is moved across the internet in packets containing information about the
source and the destination. They make it possible for particular individuals and
organizations to monitor who’s accessing particular information on the web or doing
particular things.
However, it’s not the server alone that is able to see this data. Traffic analysis is a great
business, and most private and government organizations can use it to monitor the
messages flowing between servers and clients.
This information can be used for a number of purposes including tailoring content and
advertisements depending on your search preferences, geographical location, age and
other factors.
The question therefore is; how does TOR keep your information secret?

TOR Is the Answer: But How?
There are two important aspects about onion routing that you need to know:
The Tor network is made up of volunteers who turn their computers into ‘nodes’.
During the normal browsing, information moves in packets across the internet. When you
visit a website (and you are a Tor user), your packets will not just travel to that server.
Instead, the Tor software creates a path through nodes, which are randomly assigned,
which packets will follow before they reach the server.

The other aspect of onion routing is the design of the packets- how they are
constructed. Usually, a packet includes your address as the sender and the
destination. When you use Tor, the packet will be covered by sequential layers of
packets just like a nesting doll.

When you send the packet, the top layer instructs it to go to router A, which is the first
stop on the circuit. While there, router A will take off the top layer. The following layer
instructs router A to refer the packet to router B. Router A does not have any knowledge of
the final destination of the packet, only that it came from you, the user and headed to
router B. Then router B peels off the following layer and sees that the next stop is at router
C. This process will continue until the message arrives at its destination.
The node simply knows the available info at each stop only i.e. the packet’s last place and
its next stop.
With that understanding, now is time to learn how to get started with TOR.
Downloading And Installing TOR

TOR is completely free and downloading and installing it is actually so simple you won’t
believe it! I will use windows 10 and Linux operating systems to show you how you can
download and install TOR.
Before anything, you need to note that the Tor browser that we are going to download
does not need any specialized software to run or install on your computer. It easily runs off
a USB flash drive, comes with a web-browser (pre-configured) to protect your anonymity
and is portable or self-contained. Let’s now discuss how to download and install TOR.

Downloading For Linux
1. Using the GUI
Start by visiting the official website of Tor:
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en. You should be able to see a list
consisting of different packages for Windows, Linux and Mac. Download the browser
based on parameters such as language and the number of bits your computer supports i.e.
whether 32 bits or 64 bits (these terms refer to the way your computer processor handles
information; so, you need to check the information of your computer’s CPU first)
As you can see in the picture above, you will download the browser based on parameters
such as language and the number of bits your computer supports i.e. whether 32 bits or 64
bits (these terms refer to the way your computer processor handles information; so, you
need to check the information of your computer’s CPU first)
When you click the link to download, you will see a window like this one below:

Click ‘ok’ and wait for the file to be downloaded.

Once you download the file, go to your ‘downloads’ folder and right click on the file, and
click ‘extract’.
In the new folder (tor-browser en-US), click the file named ‘start-tor-browser’ to open the
browser.
2. Using The Command Line Interface
You can also use the CLI (Command line interface), which is also a user interface to the
operating system of your computer or an application whereby you, the user, types in a
particular command on particular line so that the system responds to it and then enters a
new command and so forth. The following steps show how you can achieve that:
Download the Linux package and open up a terminal window by pressing the keys
Ctrl+Alt+T in the file destination. A similar window like this one below will pop up:
 Use the following command:
tar -xyJf tor-browser-linux64-5.0.2_Lang.tar.xz
if you are using the 64-bit package.
Or
tar -xyJF tor-browser-linux32-5.0.2_Lang.tar.xz
for the 32-bit package.
NOTE: Explanation for Windows package is ahead and LANG represents the language
listed in the filename.
Follow up with the following command:
cd tor-browser_LANG for example:
cd tor-browser_en-US
Then open the browser with ./Tor Browser

If you have the firewall enabled on your system, you may want to inform your browser
about the ports that are open for connection. To do this, just press/click the ‘onion’ button
that’s located on the upper left side of the application window and choose ‘Tor network
settings’ options. Click to enable the third option and insert the permitted ports on the box.

You may notice Tor looking so much like Firefox at this point; this is very normal because
Tor browsers are actually based on Firefox’s latest extended support release. If you would
want to permanently place it in the menu of your applications, you can just follow the
instructions provided below.
Adding The Tor Browser To Your Launcher Applications

What we are doing is finding a way to get a launcher icon that will allow you to start Tor
from the Unity launcher in one click and create a desktop file with the text of your choice
(but we’re going to use nano text editor for now).
$ nano Torbrowser.desktop
Have the following comments
pasted to the .desktop file and change <username> to your own:
[Desktop Entry]
Version=x,y
Name=Torbrowser
Comment=Surf anonymously
Exec=/home/<username>/.torbrowser/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/start-tor-browser
Icon=/home/<username>/.torbrowser/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/browser/icons/mozicon128.png
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Categories=Utility;Application;

(Note that if you used the nano editor, you have to use ctrl + shift + v to paste and ctrl + x
to save the file before confirming with y.)
Have the .desktop file moved to /usr/share/applications:
$ sudo mv Torbrowser.desktop /usr/share/applications
Make root the .desktop file’s owner (even though this isn’t entirely necessary)
$ sudo chown –R root:root
/usr/share/applications/Torbrowser.desktop
Ensure the desktop file is executable:
$ sudo chmod ug=rwnx,o=rx /usr/share/applications/Torbrowser.desktop
At this point, you’ll see the Tor browser icon in your launcher applications. You can now
enjoy private and above all, anonymous browsing.
Downloading For Windows 10
Start by opening your browser (such as Google chrome) and open this link. This is the
official Tor website and it looks like this:
Scroll down to the Tor browser download links provided below or just click the
large purple “download” button.
Select your operating system version- windows 32/64 bit under your preferred
language and then click it to download it.
When the file finishes downloading, open it and run the program. You will see a
Tor browser install window pop up asking you whether or not you want to run
the file. Click run and follow the subsequent instructions for installation.
Click the finish button to complete the Tor installation. Note that shortcuts will
be added to your desktop and the start menu as well.

When you begin using the Tor browser, a window will pop up to allow you to make or
adjust some settings. You can configure the settings right there or just go directly to the
Tor network by accepting the default settings and clicking the connect button.
Note the green window containing a green bar opening to illustrate that you’re being
connected to the new Tor network.
At first, the browser might take longer than you probably expect; this is normal, so you
need to be patient. In about three minutes, you’ll receive your “congratulations” message.
Go to the upper left corner of the browser window and click the onion logo for security
and privacy settings. Your browser will be ready for use at this point. You can, however,
change the security settings to suit your likings.
Before we take this discussion further, you may find the meaning of some of the jargon
we’ve been using so far hard to understand. Well, to ensure you have a clear
understanding of everything, let’s clearly learn the meaning of some of these terms.

TOR & Networking: Understanding The Lingo

Let’s understand the meaning of some of the terms you will find in this book just to ensure
you clearly understand what each means and you don’t have a twisted idea of different
concepts explained herein.
Swatting
Refers to deceiving an emergency service through means such as swindling an emergency
services dispatcher into sending a 911 response team and police to the address of another
person.
Nodes
Are data points or devices on a larger network- basically, they refer to anything containing
an IP address.
Packets
The unit of data in a packet-switched network or the internet that is routed between a
source/origin and a destination
Doxing
It’s a situation where your personal info is published on the web with malicious intent.
Proxy
It is an online server, which acts as the intermediary between you, the internet user, and
your destination site

GUI- (graphical user interface)
Is a kind of interface that enables you to interact with your electronic device through
visual indicators and graphical icons.
NSA- (National Security Agency)
Refers to an intelligence organization of the US government that monitors, collects and
processes information for purposes of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence.
Multisig- (multi signature)
Refers to a kind of technology used to add extra security for bitcoin transactions.
Digitalocean
Refers to a simple and strong cloud computing platform that’s created for developers. It’s
focused on making web infrastructure simpler.
 EC2- (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud)
This refers to a web service that gives resizable computing capability in the cloud. The
service is intended to ease web-scale cloud computing for developers.
 Bitcoin
It’s a form of digital currency whose operations are independent of a central bank and that
uses techniques of encryption to regulate the creation of different currency units as well as
verify transfer of funds.

PGP- (pretty good privacy)
This refers to a program that is used to decrypt and encrypt email over the internet and in
the authentication of messages with digital signatures.

IPv4- (Internet Protocol Version 4)

This widely used protocol is actually the fourth version of the IP that is used in data
communication over various kinds of networks. This connectionless protocol is used in
packet-switched network layers like Ethernet.
So how exactly does TOR work? Let’s discuss that in the next chapter.
Going Deeper… How TOR Really Works

At a very high level, TOR usually works by simply bouncing connections from your
device to other places through a number of intermediate computers, also known as relays;
there are approximately 6000 relays currently routing traffic via the TOR network. All the
over 6000 relays are found across the globe and are run entirely by volunteers who give up
some bandwidth for Project TOR.
You need to appreciate the fact that most relays do not contain a special software or
hardware in order to run. In fact, through the configuration of the TOR software, it acts as
a relay.
In terms of speed and anonymity of this network- the more the relays, the better. This
makes a lot of sense because each relay only has so much bandwidth to give. Moreover, if
there are any more relays you want to choose from, it’ll be harder to track one particular
user.
The thing is; there are different types of relays in TOR. TOR is created to bounce
connections through three relays and each of these relays contains a particular role to play
(I’ll cover this later). Let’s first understand the three types of relays:

Types of Relays In TOR
The entry relay- this one represents the entry point to the Tor network. Relays
are chosen to serve as entry/guard relays after being around for a while, and also
because they’ve shown to be stable besides having a high bandwidth.
Middle relay – these relays act as the middle nodes used to convey traffic from
the entry relay to the exit relay. This keeps the exit and entry relays from
identifying each other.
Exit relay- these are the relays at the edge or exit point of the network. They
direct traffic to the final destination that the client intends.

Note: Generally, it is very safe to run an entry/guard or middle relays on any shared
server or VPS like EC2 or DigitalOcean because everything the server operators see is
harmless or bland encrypted traffic.
Nonetheless, there are factors you need to consider to run an exit node. Given that the exit
usually relays all send traffic to the final destination directly, whatever illicit activity
achieved through Tor always seems to come from the exit relay. This makes issues such as
raids, abuse notices or more rarely possible. So if you happen to come across an exit relay
operator, just thank them!
What’s With The Onions?

At this point, I’m quite sure you are conversant with the way connections are usually
routed through different relays within the Tor network. Now, the question is, how do you
know you can truly trust different relays? Is it possible to be 100% sure that relays will not
track who you are connecting to and track down the data you convey across the wire? The
only answer to this is simple, you don’t have to!
TOR is made to put the least possible trust in relays. This is achieved through the usage of
encryption.
So, what’s the big deal with onions? In order to answer this question, we will take a
critical look at how the encryption works the moment you make a connection through the
TOR network.

How The Encryption Works

You (the client) encrypt the original data specifically to ensure that the only relay that can
decrypt it is the exit relay. This data is again encrypted again such that only the middle
relay is able to decrypt it. Afterward, this data is encrypted for the last time to ensure that
only the relay that can decrypt it is the guard relay.
What this means is that the original data is wrapped in encryption layers, to resemble the
structure of an onion.
By doing so, each and every relay only holds the information it needs to have i.e. where it
got the data from and where it is sending it. This technique of encrypting data is very
important to both parties: the client traffic is not compromised at all and the relays cannot
be held accountable for any data they cannot see.
Note: It is very important you don’t forget that the exit relays can see the original data that
you send as the client because they have to convey this data to the destination. What this
means is that if credentials are passed over clear text protocols such FTP and HTTP, the
exit relays can easily detect the traffic.

The Problem With Relays

The moment a TOR client starts up, it requires some means to fetch a list of all the exit,
middle and entry relays available. This list of all the relays is not a secret. In fact, it is
important to make this list public but it brings a problem.
In order to understand why this is the problem, let’s put ourselves in the attacker’s shoes
and ask ourselves: what would a real oppressive government do? When you think about
this, you will understand why TOR is built the way it is.
Because censorship is a really big deal and TOR is very effective at getting around that, a
real oppressive government would therefore want to prevent users from using TOR. I want
you to understand the two ways of blocking the usage of TOR:
1. Blocking users coming out of TOR
2. Blocking users going into TOR
The first instance is up to the discretion of the device or the owner of the website and thus,
it is very possible. All the site owner would require is downloading the list of Tor exit
nodes and blocking the entire traffic from these nodes. In as much as this would be
unfortunate, TOR has no power to prevent this.
The second situation, however, is a lot worse. Blocking incoming users of TOR can
definitely keep them from a specific site but blocking users from going into Tor will
definitely keep them from accessing every site, making the software successfully useless
to those individuals under censorship.
With the mere usage of relays, this is possible due to the ‘oppressive governments’ can
just download a list of every guard relay and stall any traffic to them.
Thankfully, TOR has come up with a clever solution to go around this situation:
BRIDGES.

The Tor Bridges
Bridges are merely unpublished entry relays. If you are a user behind censored networks,
the only way you can access the Tor network is through these bridges. But this raises
another question: if bridges are unpublished, how would you (the user) know where they
are? Well, the TOR project maintains a list of bridges.
This list is not just made public but the Tor project has created a way for users to get a
little list of bridges so that they can get connected to the rest of the Tor network. Since you
would only require using a few bridges, BridgeDB, is a project that will give you
information about a few bridges at a time.
If you think about it, by giving you a few bridges at a time, it makes it possible to prevent
‘oppressive governments’ from blocking any possible entry point into the Tor network.
While relays are being discovered, they can then be blocked one by one. The question is;
can all bridges be found?
Can Anyone Really Find Every Bridge?
The good thing is that the list of all bridges is a secret that is really guarded; but if there’s
somebody who was able to access this list, they would then be able to block you from
using the Tor network.
Having put a lot of consideration in this possibility, there’s a research done by project Tor
into possible ways people could use to discover all these bridges.
Part of the research entails the researchers scanning the whole IPv4 space through the use
of ZMap- a fast port scanner to look for bridges and successfully discovered up to 86% of
them. You can go through the research paper to get more details about the research.
Another section brings in a very critical challenge for Tor. It all narrows down to a simple,
straightforward concept: users cannot be trusted. So, in order to keep the Tor network
locked down and as anonymous as possible, the network has to be designed in such a way
that it distrusts all the relay operators intentionally.
Adding Bridges To Your Tor Network
There are two different ways of adding bridges to your Tor network. Each way depends on
whether your Tor is working or not. But before I get to that, let me explain to you the parts
of a bridge configuration line.
Take this example: you get a bridge from https://bridges.torproject.org, to get a bridge
entry that looks something like this:
141.201.27.48:443 4352e58420e68f5e4obf7c74faddccd9d1349413

It may be useful to understand the components of a bridge line even though it is not
strictly necessary. In the bridge IP address, the first element is 141.201.27.48 and the
second is 443. The third which is optional, is the fingerprint (the bridge’s unique
identifier) - 4352e58420e68f5e40bf7c74faddccd9d1349413
If you notice your bridge looking something like this:
obfs3 141.201.2748:420 4352e58420e68f5e4obf7c7faddccd9d1349413

Then the first element is just the pluggable transport technology’s name that is used by the
bridge. Therefore, In the case above, the bridge uses the obfs3 pluggable transport.

1. Adding The Bridge When Tor Is Working

I assume your Tor browser is running successfully and you are able to surf perfectly. If
you cannot see the web browser when you load Tor browser like in the first step below,
you may have to follow the next group of instructions below after these:
Start the browser:

In order to start using the bridges, begin by opening the network settings of the
Tor browser:

Choose the option ‘my ISP (Internet Service Provider blocks connections to the
Tor network)’:


At this point, you have two configuration options: you can either use bridges, which are
preconfigured and provided with the browser, or just specify your own bridges.

If you desire to use any one of the provided bridges, just select the transport type
you want to use. Currently, Obfs3 is the type that is most recommended but
depending on where you are located, perhaps another type may work better for
you.

However, if you really want to use a custom bridge, just go ahead and choose “enter
custom bridges” then copy-and-paste the information of the bridge into the textbox.

The Tor browser will only use one bridge at a time, but it’s prudent to add more than one
bridge so that you keep using Tor even if your initial bridge becomes inaccessible.
2. Adding Bridges When Tor Isn’t Working
First of all, you have to make sure that it’s not a silly mistake that is affecting your Tor
browser before you rush to conclude that it is your ISP affecting your internet connection.
For this reason, I would advise you to go check the common problems usually affect the
Tor browser.

In order to add a bridge, check the following on-screen instructions. Click the button
named ‘configure’.

If you have to configure a proxy, just choose ‘Yes’ and fill the details on the following
page but if you don’t want to use a proxy, just choose ‘No’ then click ‘Next’. If you don’t
really know whether you must configure a proxy, it means that you probably don’t require
it.

After configuring a proxy or skipping over that page, you will get the following page
asking whether your internet service provider (ISP) blocks or ‘otherwise censor
connections to the Tor Network’. Choose ‘yes’ and then click next.


At this point, you have double configuration options. You can either use preconfigured
bridges, which are provided with the Tor browser or just specify your own bridge.

If you want to use either one of the bridges provided, select the type of transport you want
to use and like I said, the type that is currently recommended is obfs3 and also that any
other type can also work better for you depending on your location.
As an alternative, you can use a custom bridge after which you choose “Enter custom
bridges” then copy paste the information of the bridge into the text box.

When you decide the type of bridges you want to use, just click “connect” and watch as
Tor loads successfully and the browser window similar to the one below will appear.

The Deep Web and The Hidden Services Of Tor

The Tor software is a useful tool to protect your own online privacy, but that’s not its only
function; TOR can also be used as a gateway into the Deep web, which is the large portion
of the web which the search engines haven’t indexed.
The term “Deep web” is currently thrown around in pretty popular discourse, often in
tones held in reserve for ‘bogeymen’. There are of course valid reasons for that, but most
of the Deep Web is quite mundane; it’s just all the info that can’t be accessed easily
through a normal web search, and this data is in massive loads actually. To be specific,
about 80% of the internet is made up of pages that are not known by most people. This
data is well locked behind protocols and passwords.
For clarity purposes, it is important to understand that there is a difference between deep
and dark web. Let’s understand this difference before discussing the place of TOR in all
that.

Difference Between Dark Web And Deep Web
Deep Web
The deep web, as I explained above, is just a subset of the internet you’re using, which is
not indexed by the main search engines you use. Instead of being able to search for them
directly, you have to visit those places directly because there are no directions to get there.
In other words, the sites don’t show up on search results (even if you use exact word
matches) perhaps because of lack of knowledge when setting up the site.
In this case, if you have an address, then you can get to these places. Why does the deep
web exist? It’s mainly because the internet is too large for the search engines to cover
entirely or completely.
So, think of the deep web as the lengthy tail of what is left out.

The Dark Web
Also known as the Darknet, the dark web is a subset of the deep web, which is both
indexed and needs a special something in order to access it- for instance, an authentication
to gain access or particular proxying software. The dark web usually sits on top of several
sub-networks like Freenet, I2P, and Tor and more often than not is the dark web connected
to criminal activity of various levels, including gambling, human trafficking and selling
drugs but this isn’t always the case. While the dark web is used immoral or despicable
reasons more than the deep web or the standard internet, there are quite a number of
legitimate uses for the dark web too. These include things such as using Tor to make
certain reports of government oppression anonymous and others regarding domestic abuse
and other crimes having serious costs for those responsible for calling out the issues.
The usual dark web types of resources include media distribution with special focus on
specialized and specific interests and exchanges where you can buy illegal goods and
services.
The following list includes active hidden marketplaces that you can find on the deep web.
I will give you a few examples if you are wondering what these links or sites look like.
Note: You cannot access these sites using your normal browser. That’s why you will get an
error if you try to open them using your normal browser. You have to use TOR browser to
access them.
Alphabay
URL
User guide
Sub reddit
More info
This is a renowned member of the carding forums. This is simply a marketplace that was
opened by a person named alpha02. Alpha Bay is actually the dark web’s biggest
underground marketplace offering a wide array of both legal and illegal goods; you can
buy drugs, stolen credit card data, counterfeits, electronics etc.
Silk Road 3
URL
User guide
More info
This is a name that has become synonymous with purchasing drugs on the internet.
Note: The former Silk Road marketplaces have been closed down and every so often,
there’s a new one always popping up with a new name. Therefore, you should be weary of
using this marketplace. There are other more trusted marketplaces for safer bets such as
Agora
Valhalla
URL
Forum URL
More info
This one used to be a Finnish marketplace when it was started in October 2013. It has now
adopted an international status and is available in the English language. The market offers
forced PGP, 2F, multisig and traditional escrow.
Note: As you noticed from the above URLs, they end with .onion. This essentially means
that these sites can only be accessed using Tor browser (the hidden network).
These sorts of sites often require that you contribute before using to keep the resource
thriving and with fresh content and also to assist in assuring that everyone over there
shares a bond of mutual guilt that assists in reducing the chances that anyone will give
away the site to the authorities.
Using Tor To Navigate The Dark Web Safely

When you are using Tor, there’s one key thing you need to consider: you need to know
very well where you want to go. What it means by not being crawled by search engines is
you cannot simply go to Google and do the usual search for sites. You need to have a
direct link to the website instead such as the ones illustrated above.

Be Careful!
While Tor is useful and effective for browsing anonymously on the Web, it has its
limitations, which you need to take note of: the software has (naturally) drawn attention
from government organizations such as the FBI and NSA who began considering Tor a
target of particular interest.
Moreover, the Tor network is to a large extent secure from traffic analysis but with the
consistent advancement in technology, the browser has become vulnerable to a certain
degree to attacks and exploits. This is mainly due to the Tor browser being a modified
version of Firefox, which is vulnerable to many attacks.
The mere usage of Tor can make you an attractive target of the government even if you are
using Tor for legal purposes. There are leaked NSA documents that have revealed that
their main focus is on the ‘dumb users’ i.e. those people using Tor ‘without knowing much
about internet security’. Why are they a target? Well, through these users’ carelessness, the
NSA can get in the Tor network. Sometimes it’s feared that the experts or the NSA could
observe packets as they travel and shed layers and actually reconstruct the entire traveled
path.

What To Do:
Unless you are living dangerously, don’t change the window size of your Tor
browser. Some authorities have programs that are able to match identities on
things like matching time online and other random things with the window size
of your browser. It’s in your best interest to have the browser remaining the same
as most other people’s so don’t change the size.
Tor is very effective but even so, you need to turn off JavaScript so that you
remain 100% anonymous. Change the settings on the Tor browser as illustrated
below.

Also, if you use any other browser or non-browser service like Skype, flash
media players, Google Drive, Dropbox etc, you could actually be compromising
your anonymity as these may ‘leak’ and compromise your identity.
When you are browsing the darknet, you need to either disconnect your camera
or use a black tape to cover your camera. Hackers and governments are always
devising ways of getting into your computer and turning on the cameras and
video. This is especially useful if you have images that can be useful to someone
in case they want something to use against you- perhaps for blackmail, extortion
or such activities.
You also need to disconnect your computer’s microphone or just use a tape to
muffle it well; the last things you would want is to be recorded uttering
incriminating things in your office or at home. But hey; you don’t have to do this
only because you are on the dark web; many people who relish privacy can tell
you the importance of doing all this.
Avoid using your photos, real name or even password that you’ve used before on
the dark web, as these are some of the fastest ways to get tracked. Clever people
always use anonymous email accounts and aliases, which have nothing to do
with them or that they’ve never used before.
Where To Start (In The Deep Web)
Well, you are now inside…where do you go? Where do you start after you’ve finally
opened the Tor browser bundle to start your secure navigation? Well, the most common
suggestion you’ll find on Reddit is to begin at an interface similar to Wikipedia called
‘Hidden Wiki’ that lists different sites by category, which you can access based on your
interest. A few of these categories include news and history, Boards/chans/forums,
H/P/A/W/V/C (Hack phreak, anarchy, warez, virus and crack) and commercial services.
You will find multiple sites under each one of these headings with a brief description
what’s inside and an onion address.
Even though many of the listed sites have been taken down, there are many, especially the
really illicit marketplaces, still operating such as those dealing with arms, child porn and
drugs regardless of being on much smaller scales. There’s one popular chat service you’ll
find: the onion chat which is an anonymous real-time chat room that’s basically Tor-based
and affiliated with the onions subreddit. The code for the project is accessible through
GitHub as well. In the OnionDir site, there is the directory for the DeepWeb Link that had
some really promising hyperlinks and some which are pretty much otherwise such as the
now non-operational Deep Web Radio and a blog claiming to be a Deep Web blog but was
really sheer stories committed to spanking. So there’s a lot you ought to expect.
If you’ve been searching around looking for anonymous web surfing, I know you may still
be wondering; so what’s the difference between TOR and VPN? Which one is better; the
free TOR or some premium VPNs? Let’s discuss that next.
Tor Vs. VPN: Which Is Better?

Currently, Tor has a few competitors and you might get in a dilemma trying to think about
the best method to hide your IP address and location if you are new to all of this. You will
start with the internet; search about all the options and more often than not, you’ll see
‘VPN’ besides Tor. Of course, if you are searching for a way to surf the web anonymously,
there are a couple of options out there but the most common ones are Tor and VPN
(Virtual Private Network).
While both methods will enable you to surf the web without very minimum chances of
being tracked, and even allow you to bypass internet geo-restricted sites and internet
censorship, Tor has been proved to be the better method. But before I tell you why, let me
give you a brief explanation of how VPN works.

How VPN works

VPN is a service that guards your privacy by hiding your IP address and encrypting your
internet traffic. Once you connect to a VPN server, that server automatically acts as a
proxy to assist you to connect to the website you desire on your behalf. The website you
connect to will therefore see your VPN server’s IP address and not yours since you are
connecting through it. Moreover, you will have all your internet traffic encrypted such
that no one including your ISP and hackers will be able to pry on your activity on the web
or steal your personal info.

Note: All your network operator and ISP will see is that you are creating an encrypted
connection. Generally, VPN’s are not blocked by ISPs since they are usually used by
remote workers when they want to connect to the network of their companies.

Why Tor Is A Better Option
That said, you might see that VPN is a very great service that you may want to embrace.
Perhaps you see them as being the same in the sense that VPN and Tor can be used to
bypass internet censorship and protect your privacy or VPN and Tor can bypass geo-
restricted content filters by connecting to a server or a node that is located somewhere
with unrestricted access to a website or desired content.
However, Tor is better because of the following reasons:
No one will be able to trace the sites you visit all the way back to your IP
address.
It is very difficult for any oppressive government or organization to shut down
the network down since it’s distributed.
Tor has been rated to be the best option in situations when you require a very
high level of anonymity, when your threat level is really high and when more
capable actors like the law enforcement would try their best to de-anonymize
you. This means therefore that if you are a journalist who’s dealing with really
sensitive documents or sources, a political activist, a whistleblower or generally
in a tyrannical regime where the internet is under heavy surveillance, then the
assurances offered by VPN are insufficient. Use Tor. Although, bear it in mind
that Tor should not be treated or trusted as though it is bulletproof. Taking extra
precautions like the ones I provided earlier is requisite.
Conclusion
Based on research, most people think and actually believe that their identity is somehow
protected under the normal internet usage conditions. Well, I know you are now among the
minority who think otherwise and that’s good. I think it’s better you are among the even
smaller group of people who know the right steps to undertake in order to ensure their
privacy and anonymity; the smaller group that knows the safety measures to undertake
even while undertaking these steps to stay anonymous and still access the “larger internet”
that is the dark and deep web.
Thank you again for downloading this book!
I hope this book was able to help you to understand how to use the full power of TOR to
stay anonymous online and expand your internet browsing capabilities by accessing the
dark and deep web.
The next step is to start using TOR today and notice just how it can make your life much
better.
Finally, if you enjoyed this book, would you be kind enough to leave a review for this
book on Amazon? Just swipe a few more times to the right and you will be able to leave a
comment.
Thank you and good luck!
PS! If you are interested in learning how to hack someone’s Wi-Fi, you should check out
my book on the topic. I have attached a little preview of the book’s content below. ASIN:
B01LK2V69K.
Link: http://amzn.to/2iEWSaM


Wi-Fi Hacking
Wireless Hacking for Beginners - Step By Step

John Smith
Introduction

Hacking, hackers, cracking… these words are often thought of as bad, negative or worse,
evil. And you can’t blame people for thinking so. After all, getting into computers and
computer systems by trying to get around installed security features and programs isn’t
something that people take kindly or positively. It can be compared with knowing that
someone is trying to break into your home in the middle of the night and feeling scared or
angry at the audacity of such actions.

But believe it or not, hacking isn’t all bad or evil. You may even say that to some extent,
hacking is a necessary evil and such necessary hacking may be considered acceptable or
even ethical. The difference being is that unethical hacking on other people’s Wi-Fi
networks for purposes of personal gain or harming others is unacceptable and is not the
purpose of this book. If you’re reading this for personal gain or revenge, I’m sorry, but
you’re reading the wrong book, though the methods presented here apply to both ethical
and unethical hacking.


In this book, you’ll learn what constitutes ethical hacking, apart from the fact that it’s
meant to help others, how to hack the 2 types of Wi-Fi networks easily and some of the
most common hacking-related terminologies, especially if you decide to study more
advanced hacking techniques later on.
So if you’re ready to get hackin’, in a good way of course, then turn the page and let’s
begin.
ASIN: B01LK2V69K
Link: http://amzn.to/2iEWSaM