 TITLE: What Is the Dark Web? CONTENT: How Does the Dark Web Work?\n---------------------------\nThe Tor network is one of the largest and most well-known darknets, and it's what most people are referring to when they discuss the dark web.\nTor—short for \"The Onion Router\"—bounces information through a series of encrypted layers (like an onion) that offers users more anonymity. There are onion sites and services on the Tor network, and page addresses end in .onion.\nTo access the dark web, you can download and install the free Tor browser. (You can also use it to browse the surface and deep web.) It's perfectly legal, and the U.S. government is a major funder for the Tor Project, which creates the browser.\nBut having access to the browser is only the first step. Unlike the surface web, there aren't great search engines for the dark web. You may need to find an onion site's address on your own, and the names aren't easy to remember. For example, the CIA's onion address is ciadotgov4sjwlzihbbgxnqg3xiyrg7so2r2o3lt5wz5ypk4sxyjstad.onion, and the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica's is propub3r6espa33w.onion.\nThese are two examples of legitimate organizations that have sites on the dark web. But the dark web is best known for the illegal activity that takes place there. END