The State of the Dark Web and the Risks to Your Business

There are more than 4.5 billion web pages on the “standard” internet. The entirety of the internet, including the dark web, is estimated to be 400 to 500 times larger! The dark web is content that exists on sites only accessible by means of specific software, configurations, or authorization. The extreme anonymity of these sites and those who use them create the lucrative marketplace where cybercriminals sell your personal AND business information, exposing you to data breaches and other cyber risks. The state of the dark web and the risks to your business need immediate attention.

The dark web is NOT a limited space accessed by a small number of people:

• 2 million active users connect to the dark web through the TOR browser every day.
• 26% of North American and 17% of EU users access the dark web daily.
• Approximately one-third of North Americans used the dark web in 2019.
• Dark web use has increased by more than 300% in the last three years.
• About 60% of the information on the dark web could potentially harm organizations.

The dark web economy is booming:

• An estimated 2% – 5% of the global GDP is laundered on the dark web in one year.
• More than 75% of dark websites appear to be marketplaces.
• The price for access to corporate networks increased by 61% in Q1 2020.
• Cybercrime yields over $1.5 trillion in revenue per year.

Your data may already be on the dark web, even if you have not had a breach.

• Information on 267 million Facebook users sold in Q1 2020 for $540.
• In Q1 2020 alone, over 73.2 million new user records hit the dark web.
• 164 million user records from a dozen major companies were exposed in a single Q1 2020 data dump.
• 53% of organizations have had a data breach caused by third-party information theft.

We recently had a conversation about how hackers obtain lucrative data from your business, what they do with it, and how you can correct and minimize the risks. View the previously recorded webinar.