One of the common issues on the Dark Web, whether you monitor it or not, is the sale of your company's passwords, bank account information, employee social security numbers, and other private data.
Cybercriminals can employ many different scams such as Phishing emails, social engineering, and breaching of firewalls and software to obtain your company's private information. Cybercriminals then go on the Dark Web and post your company information to sell to other criminals putting your company and employees at risk.
What is the Dark Web?
The Dark Web is an area of the internet that is not visible by search engines but requires special software to gain entry. The Dark Web is known for its anonymity. Criminals can buy and sell nearly anything, such as stolen credit card information, email credentials, passwords, personal health records, guns, drugs, etc.
Three ways to help protect your company from the Dark Web?
- Keep your eye out for strange emails - What this means is even if you receive an email from someone, or a company you know, check the email address, look for signs of poor grammar or spelling, and tread carefully before clicking any links. If you get a notice saying your account is suspended and click to verify details, go to the website to check the link or give the company a call to confirm the information is valid.
- Pay attention to data breaches - An easy way to do this is to subscribe to online newsletters like Data Breach Today. You'll be regularly alerted if a large company gets hacked. You'll also want to keep a close eye on bank statements and credit cards used to ensure your information is accurate and you don't notice anything fraudulent.
- Choose unique and hard-to-learn passwords and Multifactor Authentication - As easy as it is for you to remember the same password for every account and device, imagine what happens to your data on all those sites, the second cybercriminals figure out your favorite password. Choose strong passwords assigned by your phone or computer, and add Multifactor Authentication in addition to your password. We recommend a password manager to manage all your passwords and logins.
While you might do everything in your power to prevent your data from being stolen, you will want a monitoring solution to alert you when your company information gets posted on the Dark Web.
Schedule a 15-minute discovery call to discuss our cybersecurity protections. We can help you determine if your information is already available on the Dark Web with a free scan.
