Every day, you and your employees use the Internet in several facets to complete your roles, much to the benefit of your business’s overall productivity and success.

But it’s what’s beneath the surface of the Internet that you need to be cautious of. Known as the Dark Web or Darknet, this part of the Internet is rife with either dangerous or illegal activity—from drug sales to illicit imagery.

The Dangers of the Dark Web and How It Can Affect Businesses

The dangerous nature of the Dark Web makes it a very vulnerable place for businesses. For example, through it, your customer or employee data could be stolen. A high commodity within the Dark Web, this type of sensitive data has the potential to be sold to millions of anonymous users, who can then use it to conduct identity theft, data breaches, and more.

Working as a collection of websites that exists on an encrypted network, the Dark Web allows all of its users to have hidden IP addresses, giving them anonymity protection. This can make it difficult or even impossible to track down threat actors who take advantage of your business or your sensitive data.

Getting data stolen that includes personal details (e.g. social security numbers and credit card numbers) can wreak havoc on your business. Not only does it damage your business’s reputation and cause harm to customer loyalty, but it can also cause a huge loss of revenue.

What is Dark Web Scanning?

Dark Web scanning is a service that helps businesses protect themselves from these potential damages. Dark Web scanning provides 24/7 searching and monitoring of the Dark Web. Through this, a cybersecurity professional can track whether there have been any mentions of business passwords, personal usernames, or other business/personal information on the Dark Web.

Once information has been gathered that your data has been compromised on the Dark Web, your IT professional can quickly fix the issue and ensure that the damage is as limited as possible. Using a combination of artificial and human intelligence, it will effectively scan private networks, blogs, chat rooms, and other areas of the Dark Web to ensure that any potential data breaches are promptly addressed and prevented, if possible.

The Benefits of Dark Web Scanning

There are several benefits that come with Dark Web scanning services, including but not limited to the following:

It Keeps Business Credentials Safe

To ensure that your data is secure and that data breaches are avoided, Dark Web scanning is a must. In a world where almost everything is now digital, keeping your data safe requires proactive scanning to ensure it hasn’t been compromised.

Ongoing Protection

When you invest in a Dark Web scanning service, you’re not only getting a one-time solution. You’re instead getting ongoing protection that will help to prevent data theft on the Dark Web. By continually scanning the dark web, your IT professional can make improvements to your cybersecurity to prevent future issues and make it more difficult for threat actors to publish your information on the Dark Web.

Comprehensive Reports

Another key benefit of Dark Web scanning is that it will create comprehensive reports detailing any data breaches and the ways in which they mitigated them. This will include any information that they detected from private sites that require a specific membership from the Dark Web community to enter. These reports allow your business to improve processes and defenses to prevent security incidents in the future.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it’s clear to see the benefits of Dark Web scanning and why businesses of all sizes and industries should invest in them. Despite the threats that the Dark Web poses on unsuspecting businesses, you can gain the upper hand by investing in these advanced cybersecurity services from a trusted professional.

IronEdge understands industry compliance standards and the best practices to ensure your company remains protected. Read on to discover our multilayered approach to cybersecurity or contact us today to learn more!