What Is the Dark Web?

You’ve probably heard of the dark web before, but do you know what it means for your business? This article investigates the various steps you can take to safeguard your business against dark web dangers.

With the dark web growing in popularity, even a non-technical individual can bring your operation to its knees by renting botnet time on the dark web.

Would you like to discover how you can defend your organization against dark web criminals? Let’s begin!

What Exactly Is the Dark Web?

When you think of the web, a couple of things probably ring a bell, for instance, websites, market places, message boards, and so on. But all that only makes up the surface web, also known as the open web. In simple terms, the open web is whatever you can see when you open a browser and use a search engine to look something up.

The dark web is quite similar to the open web, with the big difference being that search engines can’t find sites on the dark web. For that, you would need to know the exact page URL. Hidden Wiki, which, as the name suggests, is the dark web version of Wikipedia, is an excellent example.

Furthermore, to get to dark websites, you would need anonymizing software like a Tor browser to obscure your IP address. Tor allows dark web users to hide their locations and identities from parties that can track their network activity, for instance, internet service providers and government agencies.

This is the primary explanation of why the dark web has become a hub for a wide range of crimes, including purchasing and selling:

Stolen credit card numbers.
Stolen subscription credentials.
Hacked bank accounts.
Software that can break into other individuals’ PCs.

What Significance Does the Dark Web Have to Your Business? For most business leaders, the Darknet Market Places (DNMs) represent the dark web’s main focus area. Initially used for the illegal drug trade, DNMs are presently being utilized to sell a broad scope of unlawful products and services.

These “dark” spaces have become more robust and now offer the ideal forum to trade illegally acquired digital items, including:

Stolen programs.
Stolen codebases.
Stolen intellectual property.

Since DNMs offer open, anonymous access, any malevolent employee could easily solicit offers for insider information from an anonymous clientele. Without ever having to share their identity with the criminal underground, any employee with the Tor browser could sell sensitive data, access, or code on any DNM effortlessly. In fact, most corporate data breaches happen in this way.

How Can You Limit Your Organization’s Exposure to Dark Web Threats? Luckily, it’s fairly easy to monitor DNMs and take the appropriate remedial actions because of their open-but-anonymous nature.

Here’s what you need to do to manage dark web threats:

Encrypt all your sensitive information with an up-to-date encryption strategy. That’s because they become obsolete quickly and require routine updates.
Reach out to a reliable IT service provider that monitors, identifies, and reacts to dark web threats as part of their cybersecurity offerings.
Monitor the dark web and DNMs specifically for dangers that could affect your organization.
Monitor your workers’ devices and network activity for any dark web access.
Develop a clear response plan in the event that your business information comes up on the dark web. The plan should describe how you will manage clients, partners, and legal issues if a breach occurs.

Looking for Reliable IT Support to Safeguard Your Business From the Dark Web?

Our accomplished IT professionals at V&C Solutions are here to help your business in San Jose & The San Francisco Bay Area stay safe from the dark web.

What Is the Dark Web?