There’s a whole different world in cyberspace where cybercriminals perform illegal activities with user data. They might be negotiating over your personally identifiable information right now, and the highest bidder will use it to hack your account. Wouldn’t you rather know when something is up against you?
Activating dark web alerts helps you beat criminals at their own game. They notify you about data breaches and exposures before they escalate. But how exactly can you leverage them?
What Are Dark Web Alerts?
The World Wide Web (WWW) has three components: the surface web, the deep web, and the dark web. The most popular among users is the surface web because they browse on it. It involves the websites you visit online.
Next in line is the deep web. Here, you create accounts such as email addresses with your personal information. Due to their sensitive nature, such accounts require access controls with usernames and passwords for you to access your accounts.
The dark web may be the least popular among users, but it’s the most dangerous. It’s a thriving market where cybercriminals promote illegitimate activities including data mining. They retrieve and sell users’ data on this platform to the highest bidder.
A dark web alert is a notification you receive when any data associated with you appears on the dark web. A threat monitoring tool generates an automatic message when it detects your personally identifiable information. These alerts inform you about your data being in the wrong hands, and unless you do something to stop them, someone will use the data for illegitimate activities.
How Do Dark Web Alerts Work?
Websites on the dark web have a unique identity. Instead of the .COM, .ORG, and .GOV that surface webs use, such sites use .ONION. The onion is a metaphor for multiple security layers. You can’t access these sites with standard web browsers and must instead usea more anonymous browser like TOR.
There are specific information hackers trade on the dark web. They focus on credit and debit card details, medical records, passwords, and other personally identifiable information.
Dark web alerts come from threat monitoring applications programmed to monitor activities on the platform. These tools have access to updates on the open market in real-time. When you implement them, you enter your personally identifiable information including the ones mentioned above. Once the system detects any information that matches yours, it notifies you instantly.
4 Benefits of Having Dark Web Alerts
Receiving dark web alerts offers numerous security benefits including the following.
1. Discover Data Breaches Early
Cybercriminals often take their victims by surprise. Everything looks good one minute, and the next minute, you are under attack. Adata breach worsens by the minute, but a swift response mitigates its damage.
For instance, before someone hacks your account with credential stuffing, they may have bought your password from the dark web. If you activate dark web alerts, the system notifies you once your password hits the arena. Based on this tip-off, you can change your passcode immediately to avert the pending attack.
2. Raise an Alarm Against Further Damage
Financial fraud rises as hackers devise more ways to steal people’s credit card details and related information. In most cases, you find out about fraud in your bank account when you receive a strange debit alert.
A dark web monitoring tool can notify you about the presence of your banking information on the terrain before criminals steal your money. That way, you’re able to notify the relevant authorities to restrict transactions on your account. Further investigations may reveal loopholes thatcaused the sensitive data exposure, and you can fix them to avoid a recurrence.
3. Prevent Identity Theft
Retrieving a user’s personally identifiable information isthe first step in identity theft. The dark web makes this easier by offering people’s data for sale to interested parties. A threat actor doesn’t have to sweat to impersonate you, especially when they can purchase your data on the dark web at a decent price.
A dark web alert gives you a heads-up when your credentials arrive on the market. If you take the initiative to change your login credentials, the criminal can’t access your account to operate with your identity. you may also issue a disclaimer to the public, disassociating yourself from fraudulent activities intruders may perpetuate in your name.
4. Trace Stolen Data
Backing up your datasaves you the trouble of losing it to a breach or theft. But perhaps you didn’t do that, you may want to trace it for possible retrieval. Sometimes, you may just want to know the hackers’ location.
Dark web alerts offer some information about your data’s whereabouts. You get to see where your data’s history including its current location. Even if you can’t retrieve your data, knowing where it is gives you an idea of your threat actors' location. You can restrict access to users in that area.
Is the Dark Web Illegal?
There’s a debate about the dark web’s legal standing. The name has an undertone of maliciousness. Although hackers use it the most for illegal activities, non-malicious actors also use it for various objectives.
Internet users living in countries that prohibit the use of social media can access it via the dark web. This allows them to express themselves freely without sanctions. Social media giants Facebook and Twitter have dark web platforms for users who can’t access their standard sites.
Journalists and government agents also use the dark web to cover their tracks during investigations. This gives them the privacy to achieve their goals without any intrusion or obstruction. Whistleblowers also use the dark web to reveal classified information, if they want to be anonymous.
The dark web itself isn’t illegal, but the user’s motive can be illegal.
Contain Emerging Threats With Dark Web Alerts
Even when you implement strong defenses, you don’t have a 100 percent guarantee that you are threat free. Having your data on the dark web indicates a flaw in your cybersecurity. Dark web alerts help you contain attacks. Acting upon a notification can nullify any actions the handlers of your data may take.
Effective cybersecurity is continuous. Don’t get complacent when you secure your system. You must always keep an eye on it as new vulnerabilities may arise. Dark web alerts draw your attention to loopholes that emerged without your knowledge. You get a chance to remedy them before it’s too late.
