Dark Web Monitoring - Why It’s Essential
for Cybersecurity

The internet can be divided into three primary layers, each with its specific traits and ranges of accessibility as Surface, Deep and Dark web.Each layer serves a purpose in the structure of the internet; the former is easily accessible to users; the intermediate phase houses a large amount of Information and the latter is a space for both illegal and legitimate anonymous activities.

When Privacy Information is leaked such as medical records, it completely ruins someone's reputation and personal life. This is where Dark Web Monitoring comes in to expose and mitigate such risks by discovering Breach Incidents and Threat Intelligence at an early stage.

Surface Web :

• It is available without any restrictions and indexed with the aid of popular engines like google like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
• It consists of websites, social media systems, online shops, and different content material that can be observed through an easy search

Deep Web :

• Deep Web is much greater than Surface Web and contains an enormous number of statistics that is not listed via normal surface.
• This layer holds about 96% of the internet's Information, making it a good-sized repository of records that consists of the whole thing from medical records to confidential corporate data.

Dark Web :

• Dark Web is a known section of the Deep Web that makes up 1% of its total content.
• Its ability to provide a space for anonymous communication and transactions makes it a hotspot for illegal trades like underground markets and hacking services, as well as other unlawful behaviors.
• A practice, by which offices identify stolen or leaked details, including compromised passwords and other sensitive data exchanged and sold by criminals on the dark web. As more organizations keep their data online, they are at risk of a possible cybersecurity breach.

Criminals engaging in cybercrime trade personal data, account details, and access rights within the dark corners of the dark web. They are known to use stolen credentials and intelligent built-in tools to remain hidden most of the time through a method termed "living off the land" (LOTL).The following points depicts the reasons for dark web monitoring.

But how do they manage to lay their hands on the consumers' data in real terms? Some common attack vendors are:

• The first and the most prevalent method is Phishing. Generally, a fake email is used here to deceive people into revealing sensitive information.
• Malware, Loaders, and Botnets: Such malicious software is encoded to steal your data and sell your data to some exploitation system.
• Insecure Networks: When you are linked to unprotected networks, hackers can easily steal your data.
• The next most popular method is Vulnerabilities and Exploits. There is a specialized kit target to use the vulnerabilities of the software and crack it.
• Another method is Keylogging, which is one of the stealthiest ways to steal personal information by recording keystrokes.
• Screen Scraping: Through this, they would also be able to capture whatever data is displayed on your screen.

Dark web monitoring should come on top of the list of businesses. The following are the reasons why is this necessary in an organisation:

Safeguarding Information: From customer information to financial records, proactive monitoring of the dark web will let a business defend its sensitive Information. This will gear them up to identify the risks facing their data and take corrective measures on time.

• Early Threat Detection: Monitoring the dark web is one of the greatest reasons to be able to know about threats at the earliest possible time. The quicker a corporation is able to ascertain that its data might be accessed, the quicker it can make a move to respond to breaches. Detecting the attacks in their early stages is crucial in limiting damage and staving off a further attack.
• Maintain Customer Trust: Data breaches can terribly hurt a company’s reputation. When companies keep vigil over the deep web, they can sprint into action the very moment a breach is detected— assuredly one way of maintaining customer trust.
• Compliance: Numerous industries like health or financial sectors heavily bank on the stringency of data protection legislations such as GDPR or CCPA. Failure to secure sensitive data can result in the heaviest fines and other penalties. Therefore, businesses stay more toward their due compliance by keeping watch over any threats; hence, they are aware and can act when there is any breach.
• Single Catastrophic Financial Loss: One single effective cyber attack may very well lead to catastrophic financial loss based on loss depending on recovery expenses, legal expenses, and loss of business. Dark web monitoring software prevents such attacks by detecting hazards early, thus enabling companies to prevent financial harm.
• Operational Continuity: When an organization is under attack, it leads to data breaches and makes business operations come to a complete halt. This is when Dark web monitoring services work to identify threats as soon as possible to prevent any further downtime and, hence, to allow operational continuity.

Here are some characteristics of dark web monitoring:

Threat Intelligence Tools for dark web monitoring identify key areas of the dark web and locate essential sources of threat intelligence—Information that helps you prevent or reduce the risks associated with hacking. Monitoring tools allow you to access the threat intelligence feed without tweaking the experts that need to be compiled and analyzed in your search.

Hunting Threats: These tools recognize new threats and protect against attacks such as pseudo hacking. This service works on the assumption that the other party may infiltrate system and launch an investigation to reveal abnormal behaviour that may indicate malicious activity.

Faster incident response: In the absence of dark web monitoring, you might spend months unaware of a data breach. Dark web monitoring allows you to quickly identify when your confidential information lands in the hands of cybercriminals. This consequently helps minimize the timeframe criminals must duplicate sensitive data and market it.

Integration into security platforms: The Information gathered by a dark web monitoring platform can also be integrated into other security systems. This enables you to generate more precise insights from your overall security framework.

In 2022, a small healthcare provider experienced a serious ransomware attack. The root cause of this violation was returned to his administrator, Creedians, which was revealed on the dark web. Unfortunately, by the time the violation was detected, the loss had already been done. In addition to significant recovery expenses, the organization had to pay a huge ransom of $ 500,000.

This demonstrates how crucial it is to monitor the dark web actively. Had the healthcare provider been conducting regular dark web scans, such reported trailing credentials would have been underscored early on. The organization could take early preventive actions such as changing passwords and upgrading security protocols to avoid incurring expenses related to the ransom firm.

This is the best example of how dark web monitoring can act as an important instrument to protect sensitive data and prevent huge losses, both monetary and reputational. Continuous monitoring through dark web scanning would allow organizations to identify early breaches regarding stolen Information and prepare for action.

As mentioned below, some of the business benefits of Dark Web Surveillance:

24/7 Monitoring: Dark Web Surveillance Service continuously scans the dark web to ensure that pre cybercrime organizational content and data are secure. It monitors dark networks around the clock to quickly recognize when sensitive Information is reaching criminals.

Protecting stakeholders: Dark web surveillance helps identify sensitive information from customers, employees and managers that end up on the dark web. This knowledge allows businesses to prevent criminals from using stolen Information.

If there is a risk, if the Dark Web Surveillance Service is pursuing the Dark Web around the clock, it will immediately notify businesses of any potential threats. This reduces the risk of data theft.

Preventing data injury: Organisations can become victims of data violations without realizing it. Dark Web Surveillance Services can identify this stolen Information just before the company grows wider. You can reduce the impact of these data injuries by protecting your IT systems, repairing weaknesses, and notifying all parties.

There are various dark web monitoring tools each with differing features for different needs. Below mentioned are some of the tools:

Dark Web ID (Recommended Solution): Dark Web ID is a comprehensive dark web monitoring tool tailored for businesses. It continuously tracks compromised credentials and provides actionable alerts. With integration into cybersecurity solutions and IT management systems, it is the preferred choice for businesses and Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

SPYCLOUD: SPYCLOUD is an expert in robbery and password hygiene of theft. The agreement to prevent account acquisition provides a detailed report on credit credentials and password-revolution recommendations.

Have I been pawned?: Have I been pawned is a free tool that allows individuals to check if their email address is violated.

Usage of passwords that cannot be breached easily: Normally, people use the same password 13 times, which poses risk to account security. A single passcode approach places them at significant risk of theft. Thus, it is important that employees change their passwords every 30–90 days and use strong lengthy passwords for every account. Usage of a password manager is also recommended as a password manager encrypts a password database with a master password—the master password is the only one that a user must remember.

Browse safely across the web: Giving employees the ability to browse the internet for information is an important part of success in a modern company. However, this can put the company's website security at risk. 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.

Safeguard information: Time is of the essence when the dark web monitoring tool informs you that your company's data is available on the dark web. To counter the effect, follow the following steps:

• Ø Alert the concerned people and departments. If you discover your firm's sensitive information on the dark web, ensure that all concerned personnel, departments, and organizations are informed about what is going on.
• Ø Track unauthorized changes. Check for any activity appearing suspicious, i.e., irregular purchases, messages, or emails sent to your customers or members.
• Ø Test and assess. Make sure to test and check your company's applications, network, and third-party website policies for potential vulnerabilities.
• Ø Use multi-factor authentication (MFA). Use MFA with any app that is supported.
• Ø Ensure your backups are secure. Ensure that your business has more than one backup, and at least one of them is offsite.