If your business takes place online in any capacity, it’s time you heard about dark web monitoring.
Dark web monitoring ensures the protection of your data. That’s super important for ensuring client confidentiality.
We’re here to introduce you to one of the best ways to protect your information online. And, we’ll show you why many business owners are looking into dark web monitoring as a way to keep their data safe. Let’s take a look!
What is the Dark Web?
You’ve probably heard of the deep web, which is the vast area of the internet that includes information that isn’t indexed by search engines. The deep web is actually where you can find most of the information on the internet, but is not publicly accessible.
However, within the deep web is a place called the dark web, and this is the area of the internet that is commonly used by cybercriminals. There are perfectly legitimate reasons to use the dark web, as all the data on the dark web is encrypted. However, it has gained a reputation as a harbor for illicit transactions.
Today, the dark web essentially acts as an illegal marketplace. It’s often used by online vendors to sell drugs, illegal weapons, and most importantly, stolen data.
If you have had your identity stolen, the culprit could easily sell your information on the dark web. They could provide it to those wanting to commit fraud under another person’s credentials.
Dark web monitoring can help take away the worry of having your business’s data leaked by keeping an eye on the dark web to be sure that your information doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
What is Dark Web Monitoring?
Dark web monitoring is exactly what it says it is – it monitors the dark web for you to look for the presence of your business’s data. It acts very similarly to a regular search engine, looking specifically to see if your information is anywhere on the dark web.
If any of your data, such as passwords or client information, has been somehow leaked, dark web monitoring can help to see if it is being shared on the dark web.
While there are business IT services and security tools out there to protect from identity theft or being hacked, dark web monitoring goes a step further by acting as preemptive damage control when your information is already out there.
While ideally, your business would not have to worry about stolen data, it is a more common occurrence than you would think, and dark web monitoring helps ensure that your information isn’t being shared or sold after the fact.
How Does it Work?
We told you dark web monitoring acts almost like a search engine, but what does that really mean? When you look something up on the internet, you use a search engine, like Google, and the search engine brings up the most relevant results.
Dark web monitoring acts like a non-stop search engine, looking in the dark web specifically for your data. It searches keywords pertaining to your business, such as the company name or your email address, and flags you any time that information appears on the dark web.
Dark web monitoring allows you to be aware of where your information is so you can beat cyber criminals to the punch if your data has been stolen.
Why Should I Use Dark Web Monitoring?
Dark web monitoring first and foremost will look for threats to the privacy of your company’s information. By continuously doing this, you can get a better idea of what hackers are doing to try and steal your information, and what they are doing with that information afterward.
When threats are discovered, you are the first to know about them, so you can alert your clients and other members of your business that there has been some kind of breach. Mitigating a cybersecurity threat can be extremely costly, and you can prevent unexpected data disaster expenses simply by utilizing a dark web monitoring system.
The more information you have about how your data is being used on the dark web, the better you can protect it. Dark web monitoring gives you a look into the world of stolen data and can help provide much-needed information on ways to ensure your business’s privacy.
Dark web monitoring will alert you every time your business is mentioned, and this can allow you to see patterns in where you can improve the protection of your data. Being able to pinpoint both the threat and the source will give you the opportunity to mitigate threats before they can cause any further damage.
What Does Dark Web Monitoring Include?
Dark web monitoring scans the internet for a wide variety of threats. The most common are third-party breaches, wherein another person has gotten a hold of some of your business’s information that is kept online.
However, dark web monitoring also looks for online chatter about things that haven’t even occurred yet, so if your business or anyone you work with is at risk, you can shut down any threats before they occur.
If your information was accidentally leaked, or if someone online is attempting to impersonate your business, your clients, or even your domain name, dark web monitoring gives you the opportunity to nip it in the bud.
How to Implement Dark Web Monitoring
Implementing dark web monitoring is easy, and lots of businesses are turning toward this simple tool to help protect their data online. You can also hire a local IT support company to assist you in the monitoring process.
It’s easy to leak your information online without even realizing it when you click an unknown link or download something from the internet that secretly introduces malware to your computer.
Providing your employees with some awareness training will help to prevent information from being leaked, and you can also provide some insight on what dark web monitoring will look like for them.
With a dark web monitoring plan, you can boost your cybersecurity. You do this by not only giving your employees the awareness they need to prevent information from being stolen. And, you also keep tabs on that information when these situations do arise.
Moving Forward
It’s hard to find someone nowadays who doesn’t use the internet, but there are still a vast number of people using it without being aware of its dangers.
Dark web monitoring allows you to sleep a little easier by doing the work for you, keeping tabs on the areas of the internet where your information might be traded. If your business has an online presence of any kind, it might be time to consider keeping your data safe using dark web monitoring.
Get in touch with our Los Angeles IT services team and we’ll help protect you from dangerous security breaches.
