A big part of cybersecurity is proactive security. This means you simply keep a continuous watch out for potential threats before they blow up into serious security incidents. Technically, having a keen sense of catching threats is what you call threat identification skills.
Threats from a cybersecurity perspective can be both internal and external. It goes without saying that consistent security awareness training and upskilling about the evolving tech stacks and network environments are the fundamentals to enhancing your threat identification skills.
But all the training, security standards, and so on mostly operate within the confines of a regular organization and general network environments. But there is a whole other world outside your company walls and the mainstream internet, where cybercrime enthusiasts thrive. If you want to be truly proactive, you need to keep a watch out in these spaces as well and spot your enemy before you pay the price for not doing so earlier.
Common Types of Threats
According to a report, 95% of cybersecurity incidents at SMBs cost in the range of $826 – $653,587. Hence, it makes sense to make yourself familiar with all kinds of potential threats.
Let’s start with the common insider threats.
You will be surprised to know that, more often, data breaches and security mishaps happen either by disgruntled employees or negligent employees. Insider threats can be difficult to predict, which is why you need to establish a proper security process and access policies in your organization to avoid such threats. Make sure you vet all your third-party partners and team members and establish strict access control mechanisms to prevent confidential data from getting leaked.
The most common types of external threats often manifest in the form of malware attacks, hacking attempts, and social engineering. While you may have a strong security process in place to combat such attacks, you should also ensure that you are continuously evolving your security practices to match up with the evolving tech landscape and attack patterns.
Besides all the caution you take, you also need to take some extra caution in the places that your enemy usually operates from: the Dark Web.
What is the Dark Web, and Why Should You be Wary of it?
Many companies can stay quite oblivious to data breaches and their data being leaked onto the dark web. The dark web is a rather dark part of the internet that is unregulated and usually outside the bounds of legal restrictions, as the users of the dark web cannot be traced easily. The dark web consists of content that is not indexed by search engines and needs special software to access. As they provide a high level of privacy, the sites on the dark web are often used as means to conduct criminal activities.
Any private and sensitive information shared about your company, be it a conversation among your employees, contract information, data on your transactions, expenses, and more, if leaked into the dark web, can be easily exploited by black-hat hackers. And subsequent cyberattacks could lead to quite a big financial and reputational loss for any SMB.
Some of the common attacks that make use of the anonymity and privacy provided by the dark web include the infamous ransomware attacks, identity thefts by using stolen credentials, and financial scams with stolen credit card information. What’s more dangerous is that there are exploit kits available on the dark web that can make it so much simpler for hackers to get access to your confidential data.
So, it makes sense to keep an eye out for what essentially could be your enemy’s base fort. Monitoring the dark web is a necessary part of proactive security. SMBs can benefit a lot by identifying data leaks early on and taking the necessary actions to prevent any potential cyberattacks.
Spot the Enemy with Us
SMBs need to plan and execute security measures to not only actively monitor the dark web but also carry out a proper incident response process in case they find themselves in a vulnerable position with respect to the dark web.
You will need comprehensive information on the level and scale of data breaches to get to the root cause of your threats and address them in the right way.
If you want to boost your cybersecurity and are looking for ways to spot threats, contact us today. Get your Dark Web Compromise Report now.
