The Dark Web And What You Should Know

Dark Web

What is the Dark Web?

The cybercrime landscape is evolving fast. The “Nigerian” email scams are now old. Cybercriminals are smarter and organized – almost functioning like professionals. In fact, there’s a parallel universe where they all operate in a very corporate-like manner, called the Dark Web.

What can be the implications for your organization if you are on the Dark Web?

If your data is on the dark web, it puts your business and your clients at risk. As a business, you possess a lot of the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of your clients, which, if leaked can even shut down your business by:

  • Attracting lawsuits that require you to pay out large sums of money in the form of fines or settlements
  • Causing serious damage to your brand and reputation
  • Resulting in the loss of clients and new business

Safeguarding your data

A proactive approach to safeguarding your data would include:

  1. Password Hygiene – Following good password hygiene is industry best practices. Be sure to establish clear password policies and rules regarding password sharing. For example, discourage the use of the same passwords for multiple accounts or use of passwords that are too simple or obvious such as a user’s name, birthdate, or numbers in sequence.
  2. Train your staff – Train your staff to identify spam, phishing, and other malware traps. Use an MSP, like Accelerate to send mock phishing emails to your staff to help train and re-train those who don’t pass them. Provide updates when there’s a new threat in cyberspace that may affect you.
  3. BYOD Policies – If you allow your employees to bring their own devices to work, establish a clear BYOD framework that will help you manage the risks associated with this setup.
  4. Access Permissions and Roles – Establish different user roles for your staff and give them role-based data editing, copying or sharing permissions, so that each employee only has as much access to information as they really need.

Being exposed in the dark web can be exhausting, scary and threatening to a small or medium-sized business. Contact The Purple Guys today to help keep your organization safe.

 

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