The dark web is a wonderfully spooky place filled with all sorts of content and people. For this reason, it has generated a lot of interest from researches hoping to understand how dark net markets work. The dark net home to a number of legitimate journalists and reputable websites who require anonymity, but it also attracts black hat hackers, drug dealers, people of the free world, and those looking for complete and total secrecy. Luckily, learning how to access dark web markets like these has never been easier than with this guide.

With just a few simple tools and in a couple of quick steps, we can infiltrate the Internet’s seedy underbelly. So without further ado, here’s everything you should know about getting on the dark web.

What Is the Dark Web?

The dark web makes up for 6% of the entire Internet space, and search engines don’t index it. While not everyone within dark net markets are doing something nefarious, it is an essential hotbed of criminal activities, which make up roughly 60% of the whole dark web.

Now, accessing websites on the dark web is not as easy as simply typing its name in the search bar. Instead, we have to know the URL down to its last letter and decimal. However, the problem with that is dark web URLs appear to be a string of random letters and numbers, followed by the .onion extension.

Accessing Dark Web Markets

Even casually strolling about dark web markets and not accessing any websites can mean serious trouble in some countries, like the US. So when going on the dark web, we need to stay safe and anonymous.

1. Installing a VPN

The first step is to find a VPN provider and employ their services. By doing so, no one will be able to monitor our internet activity, and we can safely search away. Also, we can bypass most restrictions that regular filters have.

2. Installing a Good Browser

The next course of action is to download a reliable browser that doesn’t have tracking technology like Chrome and Opera do, for example. With that said, one of the few routes we can take here is to download Tor.

3. Installing a Disposable OS or a VM

Software like Windows or Mac is potentially dangerous on the dark web because they are not terribly secure against malware attacks. In that kind of environment, someone could easily take advantage of that fact and gain complete access over our computers.

So it’s much better to use a virtual machine (VM) or a disposable OS. We would recommend using a VM like Xen Project or an OS like Tails for this endeavor.

4. Searching the Hidden Wiki and Others

Once we’ve accessed the dark web, the first place we should go to is the Hidden Wiki. There, we’ll read about some introductory points and learn how to access other websites. Other search engines we can use on the dark web include DuckDuckGo, Torch, or the Virtual Library.

Final Thoughts

Since markets on the dark web are full of shady vendors and shifty websites, it is vital that we stay safe while browsing. So before going to the dark web to do some shopping, we should get familiar with VPNs, the Tor Project, and VMs a bit better.