Are your employees’ credentials for sale on the dark web?
Why it’s important to know and how we can help you find out
You may or may not be aware of the criminal underbelly of the internet known as the dark web and its potential security risks to your organization. Fortunately, RNSi does. One of the fastest paths to a hacker’s payday is leveraging user sign-on credentials to enter a network or application and methodically navigating toward theft of crown jewel assets (or deployment of a crippling ransomware payload).
Malicious hacker activity is difficult to detect because it looks like the normal day-to-day operations of employees at work. Did you know sign-on credentials are bought and sold by cyber criminals on the dark web? If your employees’ sign-on credentials have been exposed to threat actors, your business may now be vulnerable to an attack.
When it comes to good security, many businesses need to recognize their employees as one of their most significant security risks. There are countless stories of cyber criminals dumping thumb drives with malicious hacker code in employee parking lots, waiting for someone to pick it up and plug into their work laptop? Many think “this would never happen here.” Unfortunately, research studies have found that upwards of 60% of people who find a thumb drive will do just that—potentially establishing a hacker’s position within the network with little to no effort. That’s where the business landscape is right now with security. Collectively, we know we should be doing more, but it never seems to become a priority—until a security event happens, at which point it is too late.
How can you find out if your employees’ user credentials are for sale on the dark web?
A critical step in understanding an overall security posture is conducting a risk assessment for identification of unknown security vulnerabilities and defensive gaps. As part of this effort, when RNSi performs a dark web scan can help further identify risk exposure and act as an early warning to cyber risks lurking in the shadows.
Running a dark web scan against your email domain can provide illuminating results.
One organization’s email domain uncovered 30 compromised emails, including the business owner's login credentials for his bank account
Instances of several hundred to thousands of compromised emails have been found
The results of a dark web scan will uncover employees who may have used their business email for non-business reasons and had their credentials compromised, bringing unnecessary risk to your organization. This is key reason business email addresses should never be used for non-business-related activities, and separate passwords should be used for each site or application you use. When we perform a dark web scan you will get a report on exposed users, and an opportunity to set up ongoing monitoring, so when the time comes that an employee’s credentials get exposed in the future, you can be notified and take appropriate remediation measures.
The dark web is a lot to take in, but RNSi is here to help! To learn more, download and review our “Dark Web Scanning: Understanding the Why and the How” e-book. We break down what the dark web is and the threats to your business that might be hidden there. We explain the process and value of running a dark web scan for identification of threats, and how it informs prioritization of remediation measures to help us better protect your business.
Even better, connect with us and let’s schedule a dark web scan on one of your domains today. Imagine the shock and surprise if you found your employees’ access information available for sale on the dark web. Whether you’re a large enterprise or small to mid-sized business—be sure you aren’t a target for the dark web!