The term “dark web” is almost as though it has leaped straight out of a movie plot: here is the dark web, where criminals buy, sell, and trade in stolen data. The real horror is that data could include your company’s sensitive information. Yikes!
It’s important to know how to protect your business from threats that are lurking in the dark corners of the internet. One of the best ways to do that is dark web monitoring for business.
In this article, we’ll break down the basics, explain how dark web monitoring works, and why it’s something every business should consider. So without further ado—let’s jump in.
What is the Dark Web?
Let’s first establish what exactly the dark web is. To put it simply, the internet is made up of three layers. That includes:
- the surface web;
- the deep web;
- the dark web.
The surface web is the regular internet that people use to browse websites, shop online, or watch videos. This includes everything indexed by the search engines like Google.
The deep web is where the unindexed content is. Those are databases, academic papers, and subscription services—all the things that are not meant for the public eye.
The darknet is the hidden part of the web. A user would need special browsers like Tor to access it. That’s where most of the illegal activity goes down—selling hacked accounts and credit card numbers, trading company data, and so on.
If corporate data has been lost in a data breach, then it will likely wind up for sale somewhere on the forums of the dark web. That’s why monitoring the dark web is key for businesses.
What is Dark Web Monitoring?
Think of dark web monitored by pro teams like Immuniweb as having a security patrol the most unsavory corners of the internet for you. It picks up on sensitive information about your business, which is traded or sold on dark web forums, marketplaces, and other hidden channels. It could be anything from login information and passwords to sensitive customer data or corporate IPs.
In other words, the dark web monitoring corporate tools continually crawl dark web sites for mentions of your company or any other affiliated data.
Those tools will alert you if they find suspicious disclosures, like an e-mail domain of your company or a dataset of payment information related to your customers. You will be able to take immediate action before cyber criminals use it against your business.
Why Monitoring the Dark Web Is Important for Business
If you’re wondering whether dark web monitoring performed by expert teams like Immuniweb is really necessary, the answer is “yes.” Here’s why!
Early Detection of Data Breaches
Data breaches happen much more often than we can imagine. Sometimes they remain undetected for months. Dark web monitoring acts like an early detection system where you’ll find out if your business data has been stolen and is up for sale online—before anyone can take advantage of that!
Since you’d know just where it happened, you can take any urgent matters you can. You can start resetting all the passwords, changing security settings, and notifying the clients about the leak. So the sooner you catch this threat, the better your chances of minimizing the damage.
Protecting the Brand’s Name and Customer Data
No business wants to be on the front page of the news for the wrong reasons. Dark web monitoring lets you react quickly to any problems with cyber security.
This offers the opportunity to minimize the results of an incident before it becomes a PR problem. People are way more forgiving toward a company if it acts fast to secure their data.
Your customer trusts you with their information, be it payment details, login credentials, or any other personal data. You are supposed to keep that information safe. Dark web monitoring adds another layer of security so you can protect your customers.
Proactive Threat Intelligence
Cyber threats change daily. Dark web monitoring for businesses can help you stay ahead of the curve, by gathering important intelligence on what type of data cybercriminals are after. This serves as a proactive way to figure out what kind of attacks might be coming towards you and how to prepare for them.
What to Do If Your Data Lands on the Dark Web
Finding out that your data is floating around on the dark web can be pretty intimidating but it’s not the end of the world. Here’s what to do if dark web monitoring detects your information:
- Investigate the breach. First, find where the breach is. Is it an outside attack or some inside job against your company? Understanding the issue will help fix the problem from its roots.
- Notify affected parties. If customer data is compromised, notify those affected as soon as possible. Transparency is key here—customers will appreciate knowing that you’re taking steps to protect them.
- Perform damage control. Change the passwords and security details. Offer your customers credit monitoring services if needed.
- Strengthen your defenses. Consider this a learning experience. Improve cybersecurity so that this breach won’t happen again. Train employees, change security tools, and integrate multi-factor authentication.
Choosing a Dark Web Monitoring Solution
Not all dark web monitoring services are designed the same. At a minimum, a solution for monitoring the dark web for businesses should do the following:
- Real-time alerts. It’s all about the speed at which the bad guy is defeated.
- Dark web scanning. Deep searching would entail every part of the dark web, including forums, marketplaces, and chat rooms.
- Multi-type data support. Make sure it can track your email domain, credit card numbers, intellectual property, and more if need be.
This work can be outsourced to a third-party service provider that specializes in detecting those threats and making sure you are protected against them.
Conclusion
Dark web monitoring is not a luxury—it’s an absolute necessity. It gives you a way to figure out if your data has been stolen. It helps you protect your customers and prevent a security breach from turning into a crisis. As an entrepreneur, that’s a good way to make sure your company is safe in the digital space.
