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One example of a ransomware attack turned into a dark web auction:ĬD Projekt Red (CDPR), a game development company based in Poland, became the victim of a ransomware attack at the beginning of February.Ĭyber criminals hacked into the company’s systems, compromising their data and gaining access to the source code for all CDPR games, including their latest game, Cyberpunk 2077, along with other popular games like Witcher 3 and Gwent. Social security numbers, bank account information and driver’s licenses can go for pennies on the dollar, and if it’s your organization’s customer data that gets leaked or sold, you could face serious legal repercussions, too. When they do take information, it often ends up for sale on the dark web. Once hackers have access to your systems, they have the potential to view, manipulate, and even steal massive amounts of information. Why should my business be concerned about the dark web?Īll it takes is one cyber attack to compromise your business data. One specific example of legitimate use of the dark web is keeping journalists anonymous during crisis situations. Many organizations use the Dark Web to protect confidential resources and protect identities. However, it’s important to note that the Dark Web isn’t entirely comprised of illegal activity and malicious cyber criminals. Most access the dark web for illicit activity, including selling illegal material like drugs, weapons, malware packages, and data stolen from others. Both are used to provide anonymity for users. Two of the more popular tools for this are Tor and I2P.
Surface web deep web iceberg software#
The dark web is the most difficult to access, as it requires special software and equipment. Often, it houses some scientific and government reports, too, as well as information only available to subscribers for a particular service. The deep web includes databases such as medical and financial records, and legal documents. It’s not indexed by search engines, and in order to access these areas of the Web, users must have login credentials or a specific URL. The deep web, on the other hand, is not searchable. It is indexed and searchable, and it can be accessed using a standard browser like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.Įven with everything that you can do on the surface web, it only makes up about 4-5% of the total World Wide Web.

The surface web is the portion of the Web that is available to the general public.

And, most importantly to you, it’s how many of your customers learn about and first interact with your business. It’s what I used to research this article it contains social, non-profit, and educational website s to name just a few. It’s important to understand the differences among the surface web, the deep web and the dark web, as well as what you can do to protect your information from ending up for sale on the dark web.Īs I mentioned briefly above, the surface web is what we use every day. There’s also the deep web, and the malevolent-sounding dark web. In fact, the portion of the web that you use for day-to-day activity is just the tip of the iceberg. Every organization conducts business online, but you may not realize that the Web is much larger and more complex than most of us are aware of.
