The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that is not indexed by traditional search engines. It is notorious for being a hub of illegal activities, including drug trafficking, weapon sales, identity theft, and more. This makes it crucial for businesses and individuals to monitor the dark web to protect themselves from potential threats.
By continuously monitoring various dark web forums, marketplaces, and private networks, these tools help preempt cyber threats like identity theft, data breaches, and other forms of unauthorized access or exploitation. Over the past few years, hacker groups have compromised billions of user accounts through data breaches. Hackers use various techniques to steal data, including malware, spyware, phishing scams, SIM card swapping, and ransomware. Some of these fraudsters even raid people’s trash or mail looking for bank statements, bills, or tax documents to steal Information. Cybercriminals take the stolen data and post it on the dark web in hacker forums to expose or sell on dark web marketplaces. Dark web monitoring is a service that tracks and monitors the dark web for any instances of data breaches or stolen credentials that may affect your business.
A Rich Ecosystem: Criminal Support Services
What is the Dark Web?
- It helps organizations limit the damage of a data breach and take necessary action to protect itself, it’s employees, clients, and more from a potential attack.
- The dark web has flourished thanks to bitcoin, the crypto-currency that enables two parties to conduct a trusted transaction without knowing each other’s identity.
- The use of dark web monitoring has been increasingly on the rise in recent years due to the growing risks posed by the dark web.
- Identify credential compromise and exposed sensitive technical documents or intellectual property.
- Dark web monitoring tools work by continuously scanning the dark web and deep web for any data that may be relevant to a business.
Advanced Dark Web Monitoring Services for Businesses
The dark web is a subset of the deep web, which is any part of the internet not indexed by search engines. While the deep web includes harmless things like private databases and academic resources, the dark web is specifically used for illegal activities. It requires special software to access, such as Tor, and users can remain anonymous through encryption and other security measures.
Instead, they often make their ill-gotten information available for sale on the dark web, where it is usually exchanged for large amounts of money in the form of cryptocurrencies. Dark web monitoring describes the process of searching the dark web for information – usually stolen credentials or intellectual property that is circulating among cybercriminals on the dark web. Because of complex access requirements, search engines like Google do not index entities on the dark web. In the modern world, it’s nearly impossible to remove all risks of identity theft, but taking steps to protect your data is always good practice.
Overviews of the 12 Best Dark Web Monitoring Tools
Why Should You Monitor the Dark Web?
Monitoring the dark web allows businesses and individuals to stay ahead of potential threats. By keeping an eye on this hidden part of the internet, you can identify if your personal or sensitive information has been compromised and take action to mitigate any damage. Additionally, monitoring the dark web can help organizations identify any potential security vulnerabilities before they are exploited by cybercriminals.
Automated Dark Web Monitoring
Flare provides key insights into your dark web exposure over time by correlating millions of data points and enabling our customers to make threat-based decisions about their cybersecurity program. Giving employees the ability to browse the internet for information is an important part of success in a modern company. To secure web browsing for the company, it is important to install or update security software, such as firewalls, anti-spam filters, anti-spyware, and anti-virus, on all company computers or network devices. They can also use a password manager to store their login information for all the websites they use and help them log in to them automatically. A password manager encrypts a password database with a master password—the master password is the only one that a user has to remember.
How to Monitor the Dark Web
There are various tools and services available that can help you monitor the dark web. These include dark web monitoring services that scan the dark web for any mentions of your personal information, as well as threat intelligence platforms that provide real-time alerts about potential security threats. It’s important to regularly check these sources to ensure you are staying on top of any potential risks.
The benefit of dark web monitoring is that it identifies exposed data and the amount of time that your data is exposed. In addition to scanning for data breach information, a dark web monitoring service can be used to classify risks from unknown sources. Businesses that receive alerts when their data appears on the dark web can connect those mentions to other threat sources, and use that information to profile and mitigate threats faster. Dark web monitoring can identify stolen customer lists or data; employee login credentials, business email domains, or IP addresses. If this information is discovered on the dark web, you can identify a current or past data breach, and take steps to mitigate financial or reputational damage.
In conclusion, monitoring the dark web is essential in today’s digital age to protect yourself and your organization from cyber threats. By keeping an eye on this hidden part of the internet, you can stay one step ahead of cybercriminals and take proactive steps to secure your information.
