{"id":29084,"date":"2019-10-28T11:15:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T15:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?post_type=emagazine&#038;p=29084"},"modified":"2022-08-08T05:02:20","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T09:02:20","slug":"dark-web-monitoring","status":"publish","type":"emagazine","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/dark-web-monitoring\/29084\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make your business safer from dark web cybercrime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The dark web may seem like a wild and lawless place, but a team of police officers in the north of England are getting creative to bust dark web crime. They\u2019ve found ways to successfully identify criminals selling personal data, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/coronavirus-vaccines-darknet\/38903\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">fake COVID-19 vaccines<\/a> and child sexual abuse images.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2rE6ny907Rs?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>These ongoing advances in digital law enforcement show those who use the dark web for harmful activity are by no means safe. But too many businesses don\u2019t know what they can do to avoid having data stolen and sold on the dark web, and reduce the impact if it happens.<\/p>\n<h2>What is the dark web, and why should business care?<\/h2>\n<p>The dark web is a network of computers where web traffic is anonymized. Many use it to access marketplaces and other sites to commit crime.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Alongside illegal drugs, counterfeit goods and weapons, selling personal data is big business on the dark web. Fraudsters can buy names, dates of birth, credit card information and more.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/go.kaspersky.com\/rs\/802-IJN-240\/images\/NJ_Social_Engineering_KFP.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">FBI reports losses from fraud topped 4 billion US dollars in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"c-promo-product\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/threat-attribution\/36029\/\" class=\"c-promo-product__figure\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2019\/10\/13053343\/Secure-future-logo_png.png\" class=\"attachment-card-default size-card-default\" alt=\"\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2019\/10\/13053343\/Secure-future-logo_png.png\" data-srcset=\"\" srcset=\"\">\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"c-card c-card--link c-card--medium@sm c-card--aside-hor@lg\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-card__body  \">\n\t\t\t\t\t<header class=\"c-card__header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"c-card__headline\"> Find a cyberattack's source<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"c-card__title \"><span>Who hacked you?<\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/header>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-card__desc \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Cybercriminals don\u2019t leave a calling card, but they do leave evidence.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"c-card__aside\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/threat-attribution\/36029\/\" class=\"c-button c-card__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Identify hackers<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<p>Because cybercriminals often go to the dark web to sell their ill-gotten data, businesses can reduce the time it takes to discover a data breach, costs and reputation damage with dark web monitoring. Kaspersky research found in 2021, the average <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/about\/press-releases\/2021_partnership-costs-third-party-incidents-became-most-costly-enterprise-data-breaches-in-2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">cost for enterprises of a third-party data breach reached 1.4 million US dollars<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>What cybercriminals do with data on the dark web<\/h2>\n<p>Much of its content is illegal but the dark web itself isn\u2019t. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/deep-web-dark-web-darknet-surface-web-difference\/38623\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The dark web has legitimate uses<\/a>: Dissidents, whistle-blowers and investigative journalists use it to communicate anonymously online. Others use it to avoid websites collecting their data.<\/p>\n<p>It uses the same infrastructure as the public internet, but you need special software like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.torproject.org\/download\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tor (\u2018the onion router\u2019) browser<\/a> to access it. Servers connected to the dark web hide behind many layers of anonymity. Criminals also use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to hide transactions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-43329\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2019\/10\/13053500\/M063_dark_web_monitoring_Inline-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1025\" height=\"769\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eandt.theiet.org\/content\/articles\/2020\/05\/majority-of-cyber-crime-found-to-be-financially-motivated\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Cybercriminals mostly attack for financial gain<\/a>, and the dark web presents the perfect place to profit from stolen data. Sometimes, they hold victims to ransom, threatening to publicly expose their stolen materials \u2013 anything from explicit photos to bank account details.<\/p>\n<p>Dark web monitoring services: Are they worth it?<\/p>\n<p>Dark web monitoring services are often <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/how-to-spot-hype\/36171\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">hyped<\/a> after catastrophic data breaches. Consumer credit reporting firm Experian saw these breaches as a market opportunity, launching a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.experian.com\/consumer-products\/free-dark-web-email-scan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">dark web monitoring service<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Many companies now offer dark web monitoring, but there\u2019s widespread misunderstanding of if and how it works.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>These services don\u2019t scan the full dark web \u2013 that would be almost impossible. Nor do they start takedown proceedings regarding stolen records or intellectual property. Once something is on an underground marketplace, there\u2019s often nothing you can do to stop it being sold or misused.<\/p>\n<p>Dark web monitoring can only detect publicly available information \u2013 scanners can\u2019t see anything shielded from <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Web_scraping\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">scraping software<\/a>. They\u2019re looking for big data dumps containing leaked personal information like passwords and card details. If cybercriminals steal your business information stolen and put it on the dark web, a dark web monitoring service will inform you, but only if they can see it.<\/p>\n<h2>Are there better ways than dark web monitoring?<\/h2>\n<p>There are many more effective ways to protect your business from dark web criminals, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/enterprise-security\/wiki-section\/products\/encryption\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">encrypting all your data<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/security-awareness-behavioral-psychology\/37285\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">educating employees on how to avoid accidentally giving cybercriminals access<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But if you\u2019ve had a breach, it\u2019s time to face facts: Your data is already stolen. If your sensitive information ends up on the dark web, monitoring may let you identify the breach and alert those whose information was stolen faster.<\/p>\n<p>Dark web monitoring also offers value by keeping business decision-makers informed of trends in underground communities that might compromise their security. For example, a monitoring service could reveal chatter about targeting a particular company in dark web forums, giving you a chance to prevent a breach.<\/p>\n<p>Business leaders looking for more reliable ways to tell if they\u2019ve been hacked will be pleased to know some methods don\u2019t demand a monthly fee. <a href=\"https:\/\/haveibeenpwned.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Have I Been Pwned<\/a> tells you if your email addresses or associated accounts are compromised.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the only truly reliable way to find out if you\u2019ve been hacked is to keep audit trails of activity across your network and every device connected to it. High-tech security solutions today, rather than just detecting known threats, let you search for suspicious activity like unusual computing tasks, strange network connections or unwanted software installations.<\/p>\n<p>No information security infrastructure is 100 percent unbreachable. If your organization does fall victim to a data breach, the sooner you learn of it, the better. A multi-layered, proactive approach to cybersecurity with full, real-time visibility of your digital assets is the best way to safeguard your business and customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much stolen data ends up on the dark web. What is the dark web, and can monitoring it help your business stay ahead of the cybercriminals?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2552,"featured_media":29085,"template":"","coauthors":[3673],"class_list":{"0":"post-29084","1":"emagazine","2":"type-emagazine","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"emagazine-category-data-and-privacy","7":"emagazine-category-safer-business","8":"emagazine-category-threat-intelligence","9":"emagazine-tag-dark-web","10":"emagazine-tag-data-breaches","11":"emagazine-tag-fraud"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/dark-web-monitoring\/29084\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/dark-web-monitoring\/21920\/"},{"hreflang":"es-mx","url":"https:\/\/latam.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/dark-web-monitoring\/18640\/"}],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/emagazine\/29084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/emagazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/emagazine"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=29084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}