What is dark web monitoring

What is Dark Web Monitoring?

Majorly known as cyber monitoring, dark web monitoring is a service that enables a user to monitor their identity information or any personal information on the dark web. It tracks down to the depths of the dark web to detect a user’s personal information. If anything is discovered, the user is notified with the identified information on the dark web.

The dark web is no more an uncommon term nowadays. We all have heard of news reports, stating about the discovery of millions of confidential data like credit card details, bank account passwords, intellectual property, and records of information of employees, being traded for profits on the dark web every now and then. It is the hidden part of the internet that is inaccessible by regular search engines but is only accessible through special web browsers like Tor, Subgraph OS, TAILS, etc. 

To identify whether any confidential information is being exploited in such inaccessible parts of the internet, dark web monitoring is conducted. In this process, the news boards, commercial sites, and various other forums on the dark web are tracked for PII (personally identifiable information) that is posted for buying and selling. 

This in-depth research is performed with the help of AI and human assets to make sure that the information is detected and taken down as early as possible. The tools or services used for dark web monitoring correlate the PII detected with legitimate domains and user accounts that are monitored and later provide the report on the found matches.  

What is the Importance of Dark Web Monitoring for Business?

Is your business secure from dark web?
Is your business secure from the dark web?

Before proceeding to learn about the importance of dark web monitoring for business, let us get acquainted with the following statistics about the dark web:  

  1. Currently, 2 billion login credentials of email accounts are for sale on the dark web.
  2. Hackers on the dark web have put 85 million records of personal health information for sale.
  3. According to CISO, Mag hackers have put 80,000 stolen credit card details for sale on the dark web in exchange for cryptocurrency.  
  4. As per Help Net Security, fraud guides are accounted for selling 49% of the data on the dark web, including 15.6% personal data, 12.2% non-financial accounts and credentials, 8.2% financial accounts and credentials, 8% fraud tools and templates, and 7% payment cards. 
  5. In a recently identified listing by IT security researchers, hackers have been selling more than 461,976 payment card records on the dark web that were stolen from some of the largest Indian banks!
  6. The data of 2.9 crores of job-seeking Indians is available for free on the dark web in one of the hacking forums, posted by cybercriminals. 
  7. The security research discovered vulnerabilities disclosed in NIST’s National Vulnerability Database (NVD), which unveiled 75% of those vulnerabilities available online on the dark web for exploitation before being listed in NVD. 
  8. The catastrophic data breach of the Equifax consumer credit reporting agency exposed the private information of 147 million people. 

These alarming statistics are clear proof of how much hackers and cyber criminals are capable of exploiting data on the dark web. Any business or organization that is unaware of this hidden web might not consider it a direct threat like cyber attacks. But the truth is that the dark web is actually a major threat to any organization regardless of its shape or size. It is like a secret operation that threatens to reveal a company’s confidential information and holds the capability of damaging its reputation beyond repair. 

Cyber crooks steal and sell databases, and leak encrypted emails, financial information, and login account credentials of companies to cause reputational risks and financial harm to the business. Moreover, the dark web is just not a platform for illegal trading, it is also full of various hideous cyber crimes, attempted against organizations. Hackers are recruited here, some are shared tools and tutorials on hacking systems and exploiting security vulnerabilities. 

But watching out for these possible vulnerabilities and cyber crimes might effectively impact your business by preventing any chance of data breach. With the help of stringent dark monitoring, an organization can detect and determine if its confidential data is being sold or misused on the dark web or not. The below-mentioned benefits might help in learning more about the importance of dark web monitoring services.

5 Reasons to Implement Dark Web Monitoring

Importance of Dark Web Monitoring for Business
Dark Web Monitoring for organization

With rigorous and best dark web monitoring tools and services, an organization can: 

  1. Stay protected from the dangers of the dark web.
  2. The chances of identity theft and data breaches are reduced.
  3. Track, detect, and take down the phishing websites that are exploiting your product and services permanently.   
  4. Get an instant alert if any compromised user credential is found on the dark web.
  5. Become empowered to reset the compromised credentials beforehand and prevent the account from being hacked.

Want to know more about dark web monitoring? Have some questions on the topic?  To discuss your views, make sure to let us know by commenting below!

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