The world's top ethical hacker explains what the dark web is really like and what happens there

The term ‘dark web’ is often associated with criminals but the reality of what happens in that area of the internet tends to be shrouded in mystery.

So what actually is the dark web? And where is it?

The world’s top ethical hacker has finally shed some light on the truth behind what’s lurking in the internet’s creepy corner.

Ryan Montgomery, a professional cybersecurity specialist, is an ethical hacker known for exposing online predators.

Speaking on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast, he explained what goes on in the dark web.

He said: “The dark web itself isn't a marketplace, the black market or whatever you want to call it.

“Once you're connected to the dark web you still need to know where to go to visit these horrible websites.

“Imagine a very long string of letters and numbers and the website instead of ‘.com’ it would be ‘.onion’.”

There is a lot of mystery around the dark web (boonchai wedmakawand/Getty)

The ethical hacker went on to explain that you can’t visit those sites on a regular browser, you’d need to be connected to the Onion Router, which he said can be downloaded on the TOR’s website.

Montgomery went on to add: “And then you could go to a thing called the Hidden Wiki, and the Hidden Wiki will show you all different categories of the websites with the link to them.”

“There’s counterfeit money, there’s fake IDs. There are all kinds of different websites that do horrible things,” he said.

The cybersecurity expert revealed that he has sometimes needed to go into the dark web when trying to track down ‘predators and pedophiles’, but it often doesn't come to that.

The ethical hacker explained what the dark web is (YouTube/@ShawnRyanClips)

He added: “A lot of time it doesn't need to go that far, a lot of the time these guys will use their regular emails or IP address that's been reused for multiple emails, or their face that they've been using as their profile picture, or a phone number that traces right back to them.”

The dark web is ‘not really a huge part of catching predators’, according to Montgomery.

Taking to the YouTube comment section, people were quick to praise him, with one viewer writing: “This guy is so well spoken, so determined, we would need many more like him around. Great video, thank you!”

The dark web is often associated with criminal activity (Sutthichai Supapornpasupad/Getty)

Another said: “The world needs more people like Ryan.”

A third added: “Thank you intelligent young man for exposing these horrible people on the dark web, you're amazing and the world needs more people like you, Bravo!”

And a fourth said: “After hearing about some of the stories about the dark web, my fear is coming across any of these horrific sites.”

Luckily, it seems like quite a difficult task to access the dark web.