The Dark Web Hidden Wiki has a new address to call home

The dark web’s Hidden Wiki – a launching point to the useful privacy-focused tools and resources available – now has a version 3 domain, and here it is.

The so-called “dark web” has received a fair share of negative publicity. It’s where the Medibank hackers dumped the data they stole, and the Silk Road marketplace facilitated the sale of illicit drugs. These things are enabled by cryptocurrency and the onion router, a series of layers upon layers of encrypted traffic that masks your IP address, network entry, and exit points. Yet there is much that is good, too.

There are valid and legitimate reasons why someone would want to conduct themselves anonymously online or to circumvent restrictions on their web browsing. Those living in oppressive regimes, for example, can use the dark web to communicate with the outside world about the realities of the life they face despite government propaganda, under the protection of the dark web’s encryption and anonymity. Another is for whistleblowers of corporate crime.

If you want to experience the dark web for yourself, the best starting point is the Hidden Wiki, which now has a brand new version 3 domain. Its URL is https://zqktlwiuavvvqqt4ybvgvi7tyo4hjl5xgfuvpdf6otjiycgwqbym2qad.onion/wiki/index.php/Main_Page and that may well not look like any type of Internet address you’ve ever seen before. That’s because it’s an Onion address, which is only available via TOR – otherwise known as The Onion Router.

You can read more about TOR on its project page, where you can also download the TOR browser. That’s a web browser, much like Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, and the rest, except it allows you access to .onion sites as well as regular websites, and it isolates every web session so no organisation can track you from site to site. It makes all users look the same to prevent fingerprinting based on location or browser type, or other factors, it clears cookies automatically, and your traffic is encrypted three times.

So, fire up the TOR browser, and visit the Hidden Wiki for a sample of what the dark web offers. Using the dark web in itself is not illegal in most countries, though it is in Iran, China, Russia, Armenia, Egypt, Mongolia, and South Africa. Even so, committing illegal activities using it remains illegal everywhere, and iTWire absolutely advocates you only use it for legitimate purposes – like privacy, secure communications on sensitive topics, and the like.

On the Hidden Wiki, you’ll find useful resources such as a guide to anonymity, privacy-focused search engines, privacy-focused email hosts, essays, domain services, BitCoin services, whistleblowing resources, and Dark Web versions of popular websites such as BBC News, Facebook, and even the CIA.

Now, yes, you will also find links to alleged purveyors of illegal activities so be forewarned, and take them with a grain of salt. After all, can you really trust a completely anonymous exchange where you are asked to send real money and hope you get what you seek? iTWire’s view is to stay away; not only for the obvious reason of non-legality but because these sites are most likely scams and traps and the only thing you can be sure of is you’ll lose your money.

Now, as to what is meant by the Hidden Wiki’s announcement of its “version 3” domain, this relates to TOR deprecating the previous address format (version 2) and moving to a new format. The fundamental driver is increased privacy with the Onion URLs containing additional features to aid in resolving a host address from a domain name. It’s akin to the regular Internet’s DNS system and ultimately means anybody with bookmarks to v2 Onion sites will need to ensure they update them with v3 versions.

So that’s TOR, that’s the Dark Web, and that’s the Hidden Wiki. Check it out and see what it is for yourself – but always exercise sound judgment, and be aware that TOR sites may have unreliable uptimes, sometimes up, sometimes not, but that’s the nature of sites hosted in a distributed way without the regular infrastructure of the clearweb.