Below the iceberg, there is a large portion that is out of sight. That’s why it is dangerous for vessels when approaching an iceberg. You need to keep a safe distance from it to avoid hitting it.
The iceberg is often used to illustrate the dark web. The visible part is WWW (World Wide Web), below is the deep web then further down the dark web.
The general perception on dark web is bad or associated with cyber criminals. However like penetration test tools, the tools can be misused to attack other computers but also to serve as a means to uncover infrastructure weakness for cybersecurity enhancement. The difference is between unauthorized and authorized intention.
In the case of dark web, the usefulness might be
- Understand how the underground market business model operate, what are on sales such that you will revisit how to secure these cyber assets in your own environment
- Uncover if your or corporate information is there for sales