Having your personal information leaked out on the web can be detrimental to your business, banking, and other aspects of your personal and professional life. Hackers who steal this information can leak sensitive company or drain your bank accounts, resulting in significant losses for your company.
If your information is stolen, it could end up on a place called the dark web, which is known as the most substantial part of the internet. Serving as your premier IT security provider in Pittsburgh, CMIT Solutions of Pittsburgh South has put together information on what the dark web is and how to prevent your information from ending up there.
What is the Dark Web?
The web that many of us are familiar with and use most frequently is known as the public or surface web, which only makes up only 4% of what is available online. This public web is made up of social media sites, online retailers, blogs, and new sites. It is essentially anything that shows up in a Google search.
The deep web is the largest portion of the internet, making up roughly 93% of what is available online. The deep web is comprised of private sites and databases such as company websites, pay-walled websites, and members-only websites. In the simplest terms, the deep web is not a dark and intimidating portion of the internet. It is mainly full of normal things that are not indexed by Google.
The dark web, essentially at the bottom of the deep web, is a network of hidden websites that require a special resource to access. These sites are typically heavily encrypted and are also hosted on anonymous servers. To access these sites, users will use another anonymous resource. While not everything happening on the dark web is bad, the anonymity of the dark web does enable a lot of illegal activity possible.
The Dark Web and Selling Identities
All types of personal information can be purchased on the dark web. From passports to subscription service logins, the dark web has them available for a low price. According to Experian’s data from 2017, personal information on some dark web sites was priced as follows:
- Credit card number with CV – $5
- Driver’s license – $20
- Debit card number with bank information – $15
- Social Security number – $1
Bundles or Fullz are also available to buyers and contain your full name, social security number, date of birth, account numbers, and a collection of various other data for a cost of roughly $30. Stealing and selling identities is quickly becoming a booming business, so there is no better time than now to protect your company data and personal information.
How Can You Keep Your Data Safe from the Dark Web?
CMIT Solutions can actively monitor if your personal or business information has been leaked and for sale on the dark web. We use the same credential monitoring capabilities used by Fortune 500 companies to protect your business and provide awareness of compromised credentials, before identity theft or data breaches occur. This can save you from a financial catastrophe or loss of critical business data that would jeopardize your business.
To prevent a data breach, be sure to keep password unique with a variety of letters, numbers, and characters. You may also want to consider implementing security protocols that your employees must follow to help keep your data secure.
Professional Data Protection and Backup Services Pittsburgh
At CMIT Solutions of Pittsburgh South, we understand how important your data is to your business. IT powers your business, and when anything from a malicious attack, user error, or a natural disaster strikes, it can impair or halt your daily operations, resulting in detrimental effects on your finances and reputation.
As your top choice for IT service in Pittsburgh, our expert team can help you formulate a data protection plan, implement the plan and manage your data and your backups to ensure your data remains in safe hands. Contact CMIT Solutions today to learn more about how we can keep your data safe and secure.