What is the Dark Web, how do I access it, and what is found on Dark Web websites?
Author: Sonia Older | Date published: April 27, 2021, UK | Read est: 5 min read
What is the Dark Web?
The internet has revolutionised all parts of our lives and businesses. But such a useful and important tool has, of course, also been harnessed for criminal or darker activity.
The Dark Web is an additional, unmonitored layer to the internet where scammers, hackers and criminals can buy and sell personal details, illegal activities and products or simply trade information that they shouldn’t!
And yes, most of it is pretty unsavoury.
Who created Dark Web websites?
Strangely the original Tor technology that has allowed Dark Web websites to flourish was created by the US Military so that spies could trade information anonymously.
The function of being able to hide yourself behind various secret levels means you can hide your intent and identity, making it ideal for intelligence work and useful if you are behind a firewall that doesn’t allow you to communicate freely.
But it’s also ideal for criminal activity.
How do you access the Dark Web?
So how do you access the Dark Web? This additional layer is part of the Deep Web, an area of the internet that cannot be found using traditional search engines and that is usually encrypted or password-protected. Not all of the Deep Web is dark - your bank details for example are stored in the Deep Web - but all of the Dark Web is deep!
The Dark Web is accessible via readily-available browsers, the most popular being the Onion Router (or Tor) because of its layers of encryption. Tor now hosts over 30,000 sites.
Why should I be concerned about the Dark Web?
You may believe that the Dark Web has nothing to do with you. But you’d be wrong.
You can guarantee that you or the company you work for or own has had some exposure to the Dark Web. Passwords, credit card information, National Insurance numbers, home addresses, staff details and other sensitive data will be held there and all up for sale. The kind of information you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands and that if sold could do untold damage to businesses - including data breaches, fraud and cyber crime.
According the Federation of Small Businesses, small businesses in the UK are collectively subject to almost 10,000 cyber-attacks a day! The annual cost of such attacks to the small business community is estimated to be £4.5 billion, with the average cost of an individual attack put at £1,300.
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What can I do about my company’s exposure on the Dark Web?
Don’t let the dark side of the internet threaten your business. A simple search of your exposure will reveal what Dark Web data is available so that you can address the threat and make changes to render the information useless.
For example, the Dark Web Monitoring service in the Focus Group can provide a full report on your company’s exposure on the Dark Web and work with you to neutralise the danger.
From then on, we will monitor your domain continuously and alert you when a breach has been made. This ensures passwords and payment details can be changed before they are sold or used maliciously… stopping scammers in their tracks!
Laurence Glen, Head of IT at Focus Group, says:
"There’s no doubt that Dark Web protection and monitoring has to be taken into consideration by any company addressing their online threat. Just because you don’t use the Dark Web yourself you can’t assume that you haven’t been exposed to it.
However, don’t be scared, it’s easy for us to reach down and pull out the dangerous data held there so that your company can’t be exploited by scammers, hackers or dangerous malware. Here at Focus Group we have an expert team of cyber security experts who can do this all for you and help raise your cyber security awareness, ensuring your information is safe and secure from cyber crime."
Sonia Older
Brand & Campaign Manager
Sonia Older is the Campaign Manager at Focus Group and a highly experienced copywriter. She boasts over 20 years of experience in content marketing and PR across multiple industries, and is the key driver of content and PR for Focus Group across all UK offices. Away from work, Sonia usually swaps keyboard strokes for ski slopes in the Alps with her family.
