As More People Log Onto the Dark Web, Businesses Need to Rush and Capitalize on It

There’s the World Wide Web, and also the nefarious Dark Web but not all accessing Dark Web, do so maliciously. What is the Dark Web where cyber-security companies access underground exchanges for valuable data and intellectual property, alongside much uncontrolled criminal activity? Rays of intellectual light are layered within darkness and are very beneficial to corporates. Many assume that Dark Web is bad, with the ability to browse anonymously without consequence; it’s clear that most view the anonymous dark web with hesitation.

Dark Web… What’s That?

Many feel that the Dark Web allows heinous criminals to mingle freely in virtual haunted places but a 2017 study imposingly called “Graph Theoretic Properties of the Dark Web” said it was a set of black silos without a web of established connectivity. The researchers analyzed Dark Web as a fascinating, unexplored data set with the World Wide Web and the Dark Web being very similar. The key distinction between World Wide Web and Dark Web, is the societies inhabiting each with less of a web linking the society of users together and hence Dark Web is rather isolated. Not all accessing Dark Web are malicious. There are four dark nets and the oldest and biggest is Tor network, designed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory as a secure and safe network for gathering intel. The other three are: Zeronet, I2P, and Freenet. After Tor, web-sites were created for anonymity and free-flow information and not for illicit uses.

Legitimacy Influx

Good things on the Dark Web rarely make headlines. Most report illegal exchange of goods and criminal activities happening, but cyber criminals are among internet users desiring anonymity. Many consumers experiment with anonymous web browsers like Tor for routine internet searches. With more users receiving targeted ads based on web searches, some value their search habits remaining private. In 2017, experts noted anonymous commerce as a threat to Google’s business model with Facebook and companies deriving revenues from tracking online users and targeted advertising.

Gathering Threat Intelligence

Exchanges within Dark Web facilitate collaboration and information-sharing. Cyber-security experts monitor exchanges with sophisticated adversaries engaging in discussions about hacking. Listening on such conversations, security analysts analyse emerging threats. Many agencies use threat intelligence and mitigation platforms to monitor and analyze attacks. Intelligence gathered on Dark Web allows defense against threats to own assets/applications, and assess new vulnerabilities being sold in underground marketplaces. Data helps brands learn about hacking attempts, leaked information, vulnerability, and negative perceptions. Leveraging un-indexed data on the Dark Webhelps fight money laundering, correlating bitcoin addresses with illegal activities. Security analysts locate places where illegal trade is conducted, luring criminals into traps.

Dark Analytics

With risks to enterprises utilizing un-indexed data from the Dark Web, anonymity benefits permit tapping virgin business, customers and operational insights by investigating unstructured, raw data as done by security companies monitoring exchanges for threat intelligence.  Corporates leverage innovative tools designed to target scientific research, activist data or hobby threads. Dark data is gleaned from many sources, including the Dark Web as enterprises learn to handle data from multiple domains to drive business decisions without knowing who is collecting data, who uses it or how used. Security leaders must understand who uses the Dark Web, why they use it and how found data affects organizational security.