Do You Really Need Dark Web Monitoring?

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Dark Web Monitoring is a Smart Security Essential

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When you’re looking to trim security spending you may ask yourself if you really need some services like dark web monitoring. Changing times have made some security measures less important than they used to be, but dark web monitoring isn’t one of them. These days, it’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. Bad actors have access to much more data than they used to, increasing the chance that your organization’s credentials or other sensitive data are exposed. Growing exposure means growing risk and growing danger – making keeping an eye on potential trouble from the dark web a smart move for every organization.   

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Cybercrime is Getting Easier

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A combination of world events has contributed to a sea change in the cybercrime landscape. Thanks to economic pressures and technological evolution, the dark web is still quickly growing, with more people using the dark web regularly these days than ever before. As of May 2022, the dark web counts just over 3 million active users per day, up from about 1.5 million in January 2020. Some of that growth can be directly attributed to the rise of the Cybercrime-as-a-Service economy, with more skilled cybercrime specialists available for hire than in prior years. That makes it easy for cybercrime groups to conduct more operations than in the past.  

No one likes to work harder than they have to. That’s one reason why bad actors are always in the market for credentials and other sensitive information that enables them to conduct effective phishing attacks or slip inside of a company’s defenses quickly and easily. Just like any other marketplace, prices on the dark web for things like data, malware or hacking services are fluid, with certain data types or services trending and fading for a wide variety of reasons, just like commodities in any other sector. This snapshot offers an idea of what services and commodities sell for on the dark web. 

Malware, Premium quality, per 1,000 installs	$5550
DDoS attack, Unprotected website, 10-50k requests per second, 24 hours	$45
Credit card details, account balance up to $5,000	$120
Hacked Coinbase verified account	$120
10 million USA email addresses	$120

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More Data is Exposed Than Ever Before 

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The amount of data that bad actors have access to on the dark web is growing. One major reason for this is that the number of exposed databases has grown substantially. An estimated 308,000 instances of exposed databases were identified over the entire year of 2021. But 2022 looks set to blow that total out of the water. The number of exposed databases has continued steadily climbing every quarter, with 91,000 instances of exposed databases discovered in just the first quarter of 2022. 

Not all of those databases were exposed due to cybercriminal activity. Human error is the top reason for cybersecurity incidents, and that holds when looking at the causes behind database exposure. The vast majority of databases that become exposed end up that way because of misconfiguration. Unfortunately, that can take a while to be discovered and fixed. It can take IT personnel an average time of 170 days to realize they’ve got a misconfiguration on their hands and take steps to fix the exposure problem – and that’s more than enough time for bad actors to find them and snatch the contents. According to the Verizon/Ponemon Institute Data Breach Investigations Report, these data types were involved in the most breaches in 2021. 

Data Type	% of Breaches in Which it Appeared
Credentials	60%
Personally Identifying Data (PII)	40%
Medical Data	10%
Bank Data	10%
Internal (Proprietary)	10%
Payment Data	10%

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Where is Stolen Data Available on the Dark Web? 

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Major sources of data are everywhere on the dark web. Cybercriminals can often obtain the data that they want to power their operations for cheap or even free. Information like user records, intellectual property, operational technology assets, financial records, personally identifying information and credentials can be found in many cybercriminal hangouts including: 

• Hidden chat rooms 
• Unindexed sites 
• Private websites 
• P2P (peer-to-peer) networks 
• IRC (internet relay chat) channels 
• Black market sites 
• Botnets 
• Torrents 
• Chat channels in apps like Telegram 
• Message boards/Forums 
• Discord servers 

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Choosing the Right Dark Web Monitoring Solution 

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Everyone wants to spend their money wisely, especially in a challenging economy. When looking at dark web monitoring, whether you’re choosing a solution for the first time or considering switching to a different solution, asking these questions can help you ensure that you’re investing in the right one for your organization.  

Does your dark web monitoring solution… 

• Uncover your company’s compromised credentials in seconds? 
• Show your organization’s accurate real-time risk 24/7/365? 
• Use human and machine-powered monitoring? 
• Protect business and personal credentials? 
• Monitor your domains, IP addresses and email addresses? 
• Leverage out-of-the-box integrations with popular PSA platforms? 
• Offer a fast, frictionless alerting and mitigation process? 
• Have SaaS or API options available? 
• Get to work in minutes with no extra hardware or software required? 
• Guard the personal email addresses and credentials of your privileged users? 
• Find out quickly if supply chain or third-party risks are putting your company in danger?    

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Dark Web ID is Always the Perfect Fit

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Get the clear, actionable insight that you need to make all the right security moves with Dark Web ID, the Channel leading dark web monitoring platform trusted by organizations worldwide.     

• 24/7/365 human and machine-powered monitoring of business and personal credentials, including domains, IP addresses and email addresses    
• Uncover compromised credentials in Dark Web markets, data dumps and other sources, and get fast alerts to new ones    
• An easy-to-use, automated monitoring platform that deploys in minutes and gets to work immediately, with SaaS or API options available    

Schedule your demo of Dark Web ID today. BOOK IT>>   

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