Preemptive Protection with Dark Web Threat Intelligence and Monitoring

According to the University of North Georgia, a hacking attempt happens once every 39 seconds. And while small businesses are the primary targets for many cyber crimes, everyone with an online presence, from individuals to massive international conglomerates, is at risk at all times. Add to that the ever-looming threat of the dark web — 60% of all dark web listings can potentially harm private and public organizations — and proactive cyber security measures are more critical than ever. Enter, dark web threat intelligence and monitoring.  

Dark web threat intelligence and monitoring are essential to a complete cyber security strategy. Sensitive information about your organization or your customers could be on the dark web right now, but until a crime is committed, you won’t realize it. Let’s take a closer look at exactly what dark web threat intelligence and monitoring are and how they can help protect your enterprise. 

Secure Your Network — Even small enterprises are increasingly reliant on digital solutions to communicate and conduct business. Learn what you should be doing to protect your sensitive data. 

What is Dark Web Threat Intelligence and Dark Web Monitoring? 

First, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of what the dark web is. The dark web is the part of the internet that remains intentionally hidden and unaccessible. Because of its hidden nature, communications on the dark web go largely unmonitored, providing fertile ground for criminal activities like selling credit card information, purchasing illicit substances and materials, or even hiring hackers to carry out specific attacks. 

When it comes to businesses and other organizations, the dark web poses a number of unique threats, including sale of corporate data and other illegal market activities. The dark web can facilitate acts like ransomware and distributed denial of service (DDoD) attacks. 

In order to counteract this, dark web threat intelligence and monitoring can identify potential risks, vulnerabilities, and emerging threats. Cyber security specialists achieve this by utilizing a variety of sources. A few examples are: 

• Dark web monitoring tools
• Threat intelligence solutions 
• Dark web marketplaces
• Underground forums and chat rooms
• Dark web blogs and websites 

But effectively monitoring dark web activity takes a lot of time, expertise, and resources. It’s also not a one-size-fits all solution. That’s why a customized and adaptable approach is essential. 

High Risk Areas on the Dark Web 

When tailoring dark web monitoring services to the needs of a specific business, cyber security professionals generally focus on a wide range of areas. These include: 

• Breached accounts and passwords — Monitoring dark web marketplaces where this information is sold can help cyber security experts catch compromised data early. 
• Credit card information and PII/PHI — Dark web marketplaces are also useful places for monitoring for the sale of personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) associated with a business and their clients. 
• Typosquatting sites — Cyber security experts use domain monitoring tools to identify potential typosquatting sites that mimic legitimate domains. Automated web scraping tools can also be employed to detect websites that closely resemble legitimate domains.  
• Email BEC and phishing — Specialized tools can be used to collect and analyze phishing intelligence from the dark web.  
• Sharing source code — Cyber security experts can monitor dark web forums and code-sharing platforms to look for the unauthorized sharing of an organization’s source code or proprietary information. 
• Open ports — In order to understand sources of vulnerability, cyber security experts can use automated tools to identify open ports associated with an organization. Because open ports are points where data can be sent and received, they are common targets for cyber criminals. 

Dark Web Threat Intelligence Strategies 

Along with being customized and adaptable, dark web threat intelligence and monitoring should also provide real-time and actionable information. This is what allows organizations to respond swiftly and mitigate risks. Fundamentally, it all comes down to monitoring the sources of intelligence mentioned above to identify indicators of compromise (IoCs) and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) employed by threat actors.  

Continuous monitoring and data collection is instrumental to this. It allows organizations and their cyber security experts to stay abreast of changes in the dark web so that security measures can be adapted accordingly.  

Automated tools and techniques enhance their approach to dark web threat intelligence and monitoring. Automated data collection tools help gather information from diverse dark web sources to provide a more streamlined and timely threat intelligence process. 

Anomaly detection is a proactive measure that helps identify unusual patterns that may indicate a security threat. Similarly, threat prediction allows organizations to preemptively implement security measures to protect against emerging threats. 

Manual analysis is critical for cyber security professionals to contextualize information and understand the broader implications of dark web threats. With in-depth manual analysis of dark web data and correlating information to validate automated findings, such experts are armed to make strategic decisions. 

How a Inversion6 Can Help Businesses Mitigate Risks 

Not every business and organization can (or should) employ an in-house cyber security team. However, the threat of the dark web still looms. That’s where a security operations center comes in to strengthen your defenses. 

At Inversion6, our managed cyber security services give you the best protection against cyber threats, including those on the dark web. Our three-phase dark web monitoring plan includes: 

1. Collecting your scoping information, such as IP addresses, key executive names, and email addresses 

2. Quarterly assessments from our SOC team to track risks and determine your biggest vulnerabilities 

3. Our CISOs review the findings and provide recommendations for next steps for a heightened security plan 

Connect with our team today to learn more about how to protect your business from the dangers of the dark web.