What Is The Dark Web?
You may have heard people refer to the “dark web” before, but you’re uncertain about what exactly that means and you’re looking to learn more. There are a lot of misconceptions about what exactly the dark web is, so it’s not surprising that you faced some confusion. Perhaps you’ve heard of its reputation for criminal activity but you’re not sure exactly what it is. Well, the answer may be simpler than you were expecting.
The dark web is just the part of the Internet that isn’t indexed by search engines. That means that if you were to search for a website that is considered part of the dark web on Google, you wouldn’t find it. To find a website that is part of the dark web, you have to know exactly what you are looking for and use some sort of anonymization software, such as the Tor browser.
Because of this, it’s no surprise that the dark web is known for hosting criminal activity. Really, it’s possible for anything that you could think of to be sold on the dark web. This part of the internet functions as the world’s largest black market, and so all sorts of illicit transactions are taking place this very moment. This includes credit card numbers, stolen subscription credentials, hacked bank account information, and software that helps someone break into another person’s computer. So if you weren’t thinking about the dark web before, you have to know that it might present a risk to your business you’d never considered.
Dark Web Monitoring For Cincinnati Organizations
For example, a study conducted by a Denver-based company, OWL Cybersecurity, found that almost every Fortune 500 company is exposed in some way on the dark web. And these are companies that have large budgets for cybersecurity. The reality is that every business in the modern world is exposed to some sort of risk as a result of the dark web. There are legal protections in place against this sort of criminal activity, but the dark web has proven difficult for law enforcement to get a handle on. For example, the Silk Road, the most notorious dark web marketplace, was busted in 2013. But it appears that rather than ending the sales that were being conducted on that website, this operation has only forced sellers to other areas of the dark web. So you shouldn’t expect the security risk to go away any time soon.
You may think that your business is unlikely to come up on the dark web as a potential target. After all, while hackers can target these Fortune 500 companies, why would they go after your business? But your business can’t rely on the fact that hackers are likely to overlook you. While this might be true, there are a number of smaller businesses that have fallen victim to this sort of security threat before.
And, of course, making sure that such a potential security threat to your business never fully materializes should be one of your top priorities. The harm that such a security breach would do to your business can’t be overstated. Not only would you lose revenue, but you would also lose the trust of your customers. That would be a crushing blow to any business.
You may be wondering at this point what you can do to minimize dark web security threats. The first thing to know and acknowledge is that your business will most likely face some sort of cyber attack. All that you can do is to prepare yourself and your business for the day when that attack hits. There are a few steps that you can take now to ready yourself for a cyberattack or security breach from the dark web.
The first step that you can take is to create backups of everything and have a plan for disaster recovery. You may be forced to execute a full system restore to keep your data and information safe from programs such as ransomware. If this happens, you need to make sure you have everything backed up so you can continue with your business.
You should also make sure that you have educated all your employees on proper security protocols. The main reason that cybercrime is so successful isn’t because of flaws in the security infrastructure but because of social engineering schemes, phishing, and email blunders. Educating your employees is the best way to cut down on these.
Make sure that your passwords are strong and that you are using dual-factor authentication to protect your information. The necessity of using a strong password should go without saying, but this is still a mistake that too many businesses make. Additionally, with dual-factor authentication there is another layer of protection for your information.
Still, now that you know about the dark web you may be concerned that your business is unprepared for the threat that it poses. We’re here to help you with any questions you may have about the dark web or the security of your company. Contact us today for a consultation and learn more about how we can help your business stay secure and protected from threats — even the dark web.
