You might not be familiar with the criminal underworld of the internet, often referred to as the dark web, and the security threats it poses to your organization. Log-in credentials are bought and sold by hackers on the dark web to gain access to your network and steal your organization’s critical assets. After doing so, cybercriminals can shut down your business processes, sell your customer’s personal information, demand a large ransomware payload, and much more. Unfortunately, this activity tends to go undetected because it appears as normal operations being performed by your employees. If your organization does not have a trusted team of experts consistently monitoring your network activity, you may be at risk of a crippling cyberattack.

Many businesses don’t realize that one of the biggest cyber risks within their organization is their employees. Have you heard about cybercriminals strategically leaving thumb drives containing malicious hacker code in employee parking lots, waiting for someone to pick them up and plug them into their work laptops? Unfortunately, research indicates that over 60% of individuals who find a thumb drive will plug it into their computers—potentially providing hackers with an easy entry point into the network.

It’s understood that in today’s technological world, cybersecurity is vital for businesses of all sizes. Unfortunately, cybersecurity doesn’t always seem to be a priority until a breach occurs, at which point it’s often too late.

Scanning the Dark Web for Your Credentials

One of the most important aspects of understanding your organization’s overall security posture involves conducting a risk assessment to pinpoint any undisclosed security vulnerabilities and defensive gaps. As part of this process, a dark web scan can provide additional information about potential risk exposure and can serve as an early indicator of cyber threats that may have gone unnoticed.

The findings of a dark web scan can reveal employees who might have utilized their corporate email for personal reasons, potentially leading to compromised credentials and posing unwarranted risks to your organization. This is why it remains very important for employees to understand cybersecurity compliance within the workplace, and they should not be using their business email for non-professional activities. A dark web scan can provide insight into exposed users and allow the organization to set up the appropriate security monitoring measures to ensure credentials are not compromised again in the future.

The dark web can be intimidating, especially for organizations that may not have sufficient security measures in place, but CRC Data Technologies is here to help. We utilize a highly reputable third-party to perform risk assessments of our network, and we extend the same test to our customers and other qualifying businesses at no financial cost. We highly recommend that every organization, big or small, assess their network at least twice a year. It’s best to be knowledgeable of any risks to your organization in order to properly defend against them. Give us a call today at 850-654-7262 or email support@crcdatatech.com to get started with your free cybersecurity risk assessment today.