Data on the Dark Web: Protecting Your Business Infrastructure
The internet can be a terrifying place for a business owner. Many security problems can pop up at any time, disrupting both business operations and productivity. There are articles throughout the internet that cover the risks associated with phishing, scams, and malware. These are all large threats that should be taken very seriously, but what happens when your business data ends up in the darkest corner of the internet: the dark web? How do you protect your businesses’ wellbeing if your most private data is accessible to millions of bad actors for the right price? We at Interlink Group are here to provide you with the knowledge to understand the dark web, how to recognize when your data has been released, and how we can assist when a problem like this does occur.
What is the Dark Web?
So, what is the dark web? All business owners have heard of this elusive, frightening corner of the internet mentioned in business security seminars or articles. But why is this portion of the internet regarded as so dangerous by those in the cybersecurity industry? To understand this, we first need to discuss the internet as a whole. The standard internet, the one you are already familiar with, is known as the “surface web.” Search engines index these web pages and can direct you to any part of this section of the internet with a simple click of a button. The area of the web that search engines do not index is called the “deep web.” Much of the deep web is harmless, as it mostly includes pages that are un-indexable such as password-protected webpages. Finally, we enter the most dangerous segment of the internet: the dark web.
The dark web comprises heavily protected, un-indexable webpages that can only be accessed with specific admittance software. These high degrees of protection provide users with a superior level of anonymity. According to interplayit.com,
“The dark web is a highly secure area of the deep web, providing ~99.9% anonymity for its users, which is attractive to free-speech activists, journalists, whistleblowers, and, yeah, criminals too.”
As you can see from the previous excerpt, the dark web is not exclusively used by criminals, but it often attracts malicious actors. The dark web can act as the internet’s underworld due to its ability to shroud users’ activity. This allows for the sale of illegal materials, including your businesses’ data.
Protecting Your Business
Reducing cybercriminal activity should be at the forefront of your mind when learning about the dark web. A security breach can happen to any business, both large and small. So, what steps do you need to take to help reduce the risk of a successful attack? This can be explained through a simple step-by-step process:
- Vary both your and employee passwords across the web
- Use a secure password manager
- Extend security measures to employee and customer data
- Enable dark web monitoring services
There is still the genuine possibility that a cybercriminal attack will be successful, even with these security steps mentioned above being taken. What do you do if your data ends up stolen? Interlink Group is here to help. We offer commercial dark web monitoring tools that scour this elusive corner of the internet for your businesses’ data. When credentials or company information is located, we work with you to make the necessary security adjustments and changes to get your business data back to being secure.
Corporate data security is essential to keeping your business running smoothly and efficiently. Attacks can lead to data being bought and sold online through the dark web, potentially harming both operations and client trust. As a business leader, you need to take the proper steps to preemptively secure your networks and prepare in case an attack is successful. Taking the steps outlined in this article and working with professional dark web experts, such as Interlink Group, puts you on the path to more robust technological peace of mind.
