Snow is falling, lights are twinkling, and credit cards are swiping. The end of the year mostly brings holiday cheer, but while we celebrate the holidays and spend time with loved ones, hackers are stealing credentials and credit card information. Right now, millions of people’s personal information is for sale online via the infamous sites of the dark web. With the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it’s not just shoppers who need to be on alert. Even businesses are at risk of having the credentials of unsuspecting employees put up for sale on the dark web.

What is the Dark Web?

The dark web is a section of the Internet that isn’t accessible through traditional means. Common browsers like Chrome or Mozilla Firefox allow users to access sites such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon. However, the sites you can visit on traditional web browsers only account for 0.04% of the Internet. The dark web, on the other hand, is estimated to be over 500 times larger than the surface web, and the only way to access it is through a specialized software. What’s more, traffic on the dark web has increased 300% in just the last three years.

Along with allowing access to the dark web, these special browsers also have the additional benefit of masking the locations and identities of its user. Though the dark web is home to many activities and communities similar to ones you’d find on the regular internet, such as social media sites, the anonymity it affords its users has made it a haven for criminal activity. In particular, illicit goods and services, including stolen personal information, are a hot commodity. Over 60% of the listings on the dark web’s marketplaces could harm businesses, says research from CSO Magazine.

Everything from social security numbers and IDs to credit cards and passwords are easily accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. These stolen credentials even have the potential to cause detrimental and costly damage to businesses who aren’t aware their information is for sale.

Unfortunately, businesses with protections in place are at risk of having sensitive user information stolen on the dark web. One of the more common ways credentials are stolen from a business are through social engineering schemes, such as phishing, where users are tricked into giving away their passwords to fraudulent sites pretending to be legitimate ones. Additionally, many people recycle their passwords from their private accounts to their work accounts. If any of the sites they use are hacked, it could expose their passwords, putting your company at risk.

Enlist an Cybersecurity Partner to Keep Your Business Safe

At Complete Network, we understand the risks stolen credentials pose to your business, so we are here to help you detect and mitigate these threats. By proactively seeking out potential threats, we can identify compromised credentials before identity theft or data breaches occur, without ever requiring you to connect your sensitive servers to these high-risk networks directly. Most of the time, a company whose digital credentials have been stolen won’t even know until they’re notified by the police, or they experience a costly problem. With our incidence response planning, you’ll be able to recover quickly and save your business from serious reputational loss.

Don’t let your business fall victim to insidious criminals on the dark web. Contact Complete Network at 1 877 877 1840 or [email protected] to protect your business from the dark web.