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Is the Dark Web a Threat to My Business?

We’ve all experienced breaches to our personal information to some degree: whether your credit card number has been stolen, or you fell prey to a phishing email scam, data loss and corruption is not only a hassle, it can be costly and an outright threat to a small business.

Small businesses may not seem like they’d be targeted by hackers. Being “small,” it’s easy to wonder why cyber criminals would even care to attack them. Many small business owners think “I don’t have anything worth stealing, so I’m safe.” However, the reality is this simply isn’t the case. In fact, 71% of cyber-attacks target businesses with fewer than 100 employees. And what they’re after is your customers’ names and contact information, your employees’ social security numbers and HR data, any credit card information or health records you might have, and your company’s financial records and intellectual property. Any of this is “worth stealing.”

There are numerous tools criminals may use to try to get access to this data. But the easiest way by far is to simply log-in to your system as someone from your company and steal the data. To do that, they first need the appropriate login credentials which very often can be purchased on what is known as the “Dark Web.” The Dark Web – which is about 90% of the internet that isn’t searchable by search engines like Google and Bing – is a valuable tool for criminals to profit from their illegal activities. It’s also a place they can go to purchase stolen login credentials of companies they intend to target. Picture this: you join a social network using your business email address which happens to be the login you use at work. Being a creature of habit (like many of us) you also use the same or a variation of the password you use at work. Now, let’s say that social network gets hacked and your credentials are stolen. Chances are, those credentials will be offered up for sale on the Dark Web (By the way, this actually happened to LinkedIn). And now, someone who shouldn’t have any access has easy access into your system.

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What does all this mean for small businesses? With the large majority of attacks targeting small business, it means that protecting client data is something to be proactive about and not reactive. Business (large or small) is business, and you have the same valuable data on your system as hackers want from a multibillion-dollar corporation. If hackers are able to access your data, whether by easily logging in with stolen credentials, or using more sophisticated technical means, it could cost your company everything.

The best solution? As a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP), we at Access Technologies deliver the expertise and technology you need to ensure your business isn’t just another statistic. And by using us to manage your security for you, you’ll be saving money while keeping your company secure.

If you’re interested, we’d like to offer you a free Dark Web Scan which will show any login credentials for your business that are for sale on the Dark Web. Just complete the information below.