Your company’s digital credentials could be for sale on the Dark Web. CYFOR Secure can detect compromised business credentials in real-time before they are exploited.

 

How Dark Web monitoring can be used

Organisations rely on their digital credentials for the running of daily business operations. These credentials, such as passwords and usernames, connect companies and their respective employees to online services and critical business applications, allowing access to data such as intellectual property, financial information and client databases. Unfortunately, employees can be guilty of re-using login credentials across numerous accounts, which is something that cyber-criminals exploit, making business credentials highly valuable on the dark web. This is where our dark web monitoring services come in.

In the majority of circumstances, businesses that have had their credentials compromised and sold on the dark web don’t know it until they have been either informed by the authorities or suffer a data breach. No matter how sophisticated your IT security is, if your credentials have been compromised on the dark web, then your business is at risk of cyber threats, and you will require dark web monitoring services.

What is the Dark Web?

The dark web exists in a corner of the internet that is not visible to normal search engines, such as Google and Bing. The dark web is comprised of digital communities that sit above the main internet, requiring the use of an anonymising browser called Tor to be accessed.

While there are some legitimate purposes to the dark web, it is estimated that over 50% of all sites are used for illegal activities, such as the purchase of drugs, weapons, credit card information and stolen digital credentials, to which our dark web monitoring services work to analyse and scan. 

How are your business credentials used?

Often, these credentials are entered into software that automates login processes across multiple platforms simultaneously; this is known as ‘credential stuffing’. More worryingly, there has been a rise in the use of corporate email credentials to access the corporate IT environment itself. Commonly, hackers will then review and monitor any email threads in which they see the opportunity to divert money due to be transferred to third party bank accounts or obtain and subsequently extort the organisation for the return of its confidential information.

How are your business credentials used?

Often, these credentials are entered into software that automates login processes across multiple platforms simultaneously; this is known as ‘credential stuffing’. More worryingly, there has been a rise in the use of corporate email credentials to access the corporate IT environment itself. Commonly, hackers will then review and monitor any email threads in which they see the opportunity to divert money due to be transferred to third-party bank accounts or obtain and subsequently extort the organisation for the return of its confidential information.

How do our dark web monitoring services work?

Scanning over 800,000 sites, CYFOR Secure’s dark web monitoring services detect compromised business credentials in real-time. Our advanced software for dark web monitoring notifies us immediately if your critical business assets are compromised. This is before they can be used to exploit your business for extortion, fraud, identity theft, data breaches, or other criminal activities. 

Frequent dark web monitoring and scanning, combined with pro-active cyber security services such as Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration Testing can vastly improve the security position of your company.

We can provide a dark web monitoring report detailing the following:

– The total number of records found.

– Date the records were uploaded to the dark web.

– The email and associated passwords themselves.

– Source of record (e.g. ‘ID Theft Forum’).

– Type/circumstance of the breach (e.g. ‘website breach’).

– Where applicable, the website that was breached in order to obtain the record.

– PII Hits – Details around what information was supplied alongside the records.

What information can Dark Web monitoring uncover?

As mentioned previously, the dark web cannot be found through a search engine. It allows users to browse anonymously. Many people believe that the dark web is used solely for criminal activity, however, that is not the case as it can be used for legal purposes as well. 

If you use the internet to store business, client and customer information, this could be at risk and on the dark web. This could be because you have entered your details into a phishing scam. Moreover, your company could have been vulnerable to a phishing scam or a hacker which has stolen key information from your company. At CYFOR Secure, we offer phishing simulation services to help to protect your organisation from real-world phishing attacks and ready your employees so that they are aware of the signs of a potential phishing attack.

Billion-pound companies are often hacked because they don’t keep company details protected. Dark web monitoring can be used to help identify any data that may have been stolen and could be used against you.

Personal Information That Could Be At Risk 

Any information you store online could be at risk of being stolen or on the dark web already. Dark web monitoring can uncover any personal information that is on the dark web which you may have entered on a website. The information that could be found includes credit card numbers, phone numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers and any personal addresses for your business, or your clients or customers. 

Benefits of our Dark Web Monitoring Service

Our dark web monitoring services can help to prevent identity theft, data breaches and cyber crime. It can also provide enterprise-level credential monitoring capabilities. Having dark web monitoring can also prevent business credentials from being exploited and our services can provide real-time awareness and alerts. If you want to reduce the risk of financial and reputational damage, as well as actionable intelligence for business protection, then dark web monitoring services can help with this.

 

This kind of monitoring can assist with regulatory compliance and you can use dark web monitoring for staff email addresses, usernames and passwords. It can also provide pro-active monitoring of compromised data that allows you to respond to threats immediately, helping to prevent major data breaches. With multiple thousands of emails being compromised daily, our solution provides extensive reporting capabilities to track incidents. Our Dark Web monitoring solution operates 24/7 and monitors hidden chat rooms, private websites, black market sites and IRC channels for compromised business credentials. You can also see industry patterns before they become trends and use this intelligence to keep your business protected from threats.

FAQs

Can you remove information from the dark web?

Although you cannot remove information from the dark web, there are actions you can do to ensure the safety of your personal details. As part of CYFOR Secure’s dark web monitoring service, we scan over 800,000 websites to find out if your business information has been compromised. In order to avoid your information being added to the dark web, prevention is better than the cure and ensuring that you are taking steps, such as using our dark web monitoring service, makes it much easier to protect your business against such threats.

If you are worried about your information being misused, there are a few things you can do to ensure your business data is protected. Firstly, we advise you to regularly scan your networks and devices for any viruses, just in case someone has obtained sensitive business data. Applying a two-factor code is another way to protect your data. This is where the hacker will need to enter more information to gain access to your documents, which are unlikely to be guessed. 

Finally, ensure that employees regularly change their passwords for their networks and devices and any online profiles that they may use as part of their day to day tasks. If one of their passwords has been detected with our dark web monitoring, we advise that all employees update their passwords.

Should you be worried if your email is on the dark web?

If any email addresses from your business have been detected as being mentioned on the dark web, we will mention this within the provided dark web monitoring report. If this is the case, we strongly advise that your team update their profiles and potentially change the email address. 

You must be proactive with accounts and the details of those accounts. Ensure that employees are regularly updating passwords and emails to certain accounts to ensure that your company’s data is protected from hackers. 

Should you change your phone number if it is on the dark web?

If your phone number has been highlighted in our dark web monitoring report, then it’s important not to worry. However, you must be aware of your email being used to send spam. Your phone number can be imitated and used to send fake messages to people in your contact list. If this is the case, we advise you to get in touch with your service provider. 

If a hacker obtains your phone number, they can; avert your messages, steal personal information, swap your SIM, send text message scams, blackmail using private and confidential data.

Is it a good idea to invest in Dark Web monitoring?

The dark web, although not solely used for this purpose, is home to a large amount of criminal activity. Depending on the information you deal with, this getting into the wrong hands could prove particularly damaging to your business. It is highly recommended that all businesses, but particularly ones dealing with highly sensitive information, invest in dark web monitoring to protect their business, customers and clients from potential threats. Remember, once your information is on the dark web, there is no way to get it back. 

With cyber criminals constantly adapting their attack strategies, more and more businesses are finding that their information is being compromised and ending up on the dark web. Our CYFOR Secure dark web monitoring services ensure to not only take your cyber security to the next level, but keep your business protected.