Digitalization has allowed businesses to come online and address a large section of the market by providing them services at the tip of their smartphone. But with time, it has been more challenging and complicated for companies to keep themselves secure on the internet. There have been many incidents when the company could find their private and valuable data available on the dark web for anyone to download or buy. Many CEOs don’t realize how crucial it has been to keep themselves safe from the malpractices on the dark web.

We at CodeDesign understand how crucial it is to keep your website secure for the smooth journey of your business. We value your data and understand the complications that could occur if we don’t take the necessary steps in time.

The first step in protecting your data is understanding the complications resulting from data breaching and selling your private information on the dark web.

What is the dark web? How could it be challenging?

The dark web refers to the internet’s encrypted areas known for providing anonymity to the hacker. It is an illegal marketplace to sell out an organization’s crucial information, publicize the private documents of any organization, or use the essential data to send invoices to the customers for fraud. If the website gets hacked, many data could be stolen from the backend of your website.

The dark web is simply the internet content on darknets, which don’t allow indexation to search engine crawlers and can only be accessed by specific software, configurations, or authorization. It overlays networks that may be peer-to-peer networks or large public networks such as Tor, Riffle, or Freenet.

How are businesses affected by dark web malpractices?

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are prey to the criminally minded people who try to exploit the organization’s website backend systems to gain financial data, customer credentials, employee social security numbers, and account logins. Many executives don’t have much idea about the dark web. It brings a significant disadvantage when it comes to protecting business and customer data.

The anonymity that the dark web provides to a person allows him to try and break the security firewalls and access the company’s network system. The prevalent method of breaching into the sensitive areas of your employee’s computer is Phishing. The hackers try to impersonate the email forms and the login pages of legitimate websites or even your prospective clients. Once you log in to these pages, the sensitive login information already gets stored with the hackers. They can easily use the login information to reach sensitive documents that you would never want to publicize.

Breaches occur and would continually happen, despite the very best attempts of cyber-security pros working worldwide. Thus it becomes crucial to take steps from our side to protect our business. Cyber-criminals are very well aware of the human tendency to keep the same password in all of their accounts, sometimes even the business account. Thus if the hacker manages to get your Facebook or Instagram password, they may likely break into your business account details as well. Cyber miscreants can only be successful if you fail on your side. Try to keep stronger passwords, use two-factor authentication, and frequently change the password. The small steps may need effort and will, but they can protect you from significant complications.

What information are the cyber-miscreants looking for?

When hackers are trying to breach your company’s private information, they may most likely attack the business’s credit card numbers, the payment information saved by your customers, and your financial reports. The credit card data can bring monetary gains to them. Also, third parties are looking to buy your financial statements or the email list to check on your progress. The leak of the customer’s details can bring you shame and disrupt your reputation in the market. These breaches also lead to lawsuits, meanwhile damaging the business abruptly.

CodeDesign understands how crucial customer trust is for you, but data breaches could shake your customers’ trust.

The customer’s trust is the most important thing for any company or business. The studies show that the majority of the transactions of an SME are from loyal customers. It is way easier to sell to an existing customer than acquiring a new customer. The loyal customer base is the backbone of any business. The worst thing that could transpire to a business is losing the trust of their loyal customer base. Data breaches do precisely the same.

If a consumer trusts a company and saves their payment credentials for further transactions, they expect the company to install sufficient firewalls and take steps to preserve their data. Thus, it is the organization’s responsibility to keep up the trust. If they fail in it and data breaches happen, they lose the ever-aspired customer trust and bond. The business can improve their protection later, but they are not expected to perform as previously. Everybody has concerns regarding their privacy. Thus, the company can restore the data later, but it isn’t easy to rebuild the hampered reputation.

Our obsession with your website security is approved in the UNODC report.

According to a report of UNODC, the use of darknets has increased in the last few years. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have significantly intensified the trend. The young urchins with no previous cybercrime record seem to indulge in data breaching and other cybercrimes. New people have also begun seeking aid from experienced darknet criminals concerning illegal chances. Darknet illegal marketplaces have got common during the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to some combination of technology offering higher anonymity for the buyers and sellers. Features like accessible payment approaches and standing metrics have increased.

Cryptocurrencies are the first choice for illicit transactions, but the use of crypto-mixers, tumblers, or laundry services violates the link purchase and the final purchase destination. Such loopholes in the system make it very difficult to bring the risk-offenders to justice.

CodeDesign advocates the installation of the Dark Web Scanning System.

Dark web scanning is the non-stop process of searching and monitoring the data on the dark web. The dark web scanner continuously tracks the private networks, blogs, and other sensitive areas of the dark web to see whether the business’s information has been mentioned anywhere. You can instantly seek an IT professional’s help to limit the damages caused due to the data breaches. Every single method is worth it to prevent the dark web data breach. It damages the reputation and shakes customer loyalty, and creates a massive loss in revenue.

Here are the five steps that you could take to keep your website safer:

1. Use Two-Step verification to log in to your business email and access the shared drive accounts. Phishing is challenging to avoid, but two-step authentication can be vital to preventing hacking and data breaching. It may not guarantee 100% security but every step taken to lower the risk is crucial.

2. Update the security firewalls of your company. There is always room for glitches, errors, or bugs in your firewall. Thus, it becomes crucial to continually monitor and update the entire system to ensure better security.

3. Change the passwords of your business account and shared drives often. You never know when the hacker has your email and password. Thus, to keep yourself safe and the business secure from any illegal acts, you can’t keep the password constant for a long time. Also, keep different passwords for your different accounts. Often, your social media account gets attacked. If you keep the same credentials for your business accounts, then there is a high probability of attacks on the vital data.

4. Many software allows you to encrypt any data that you may have to transfer. Also, we highly recommend you to use these encryption services while transferring data. Even if any attack and breaching happen, hackers may still not understand how to process the encrypted data. Only specific recipients with specific software could decrypt the data and use it further.

5. The fifth point is quite common, but it is important enough to get a place as the fifth contender to keep the website safer. You have only to access your accounts on the verified and personal devices. Many devices have bugs that could record every single character typed and track your passwords. Thus, it would be best if you never used any random devices for logging in to your account.

Conclusion

Your website is the first destination where your potential customers or audiences come to engage with you. Also, the website provides the first impression to your prospects. Thus, it becomes crucial for you to understand its importance and keep it safe from any hacks. Also, a lot of backend processing are continuously going on to keep your business alive. Data breachings and other illegal acts are going on, but you’ll have to take the necessary steps to prevent them. 

CodeDesign is obsessed with your website security and would always advocate taking required steps to keep the website safe and secure to prevent any complications.

 

About the author:

We are Codedesign – a multi cultural, award-winning digital marketing agency . We define as a search-led, innovative digital marketing agency specializing in  SEO, PPC, social media ads, content marketing and data analytics. We are trusted with growing the online presence of companies on a local, national and international scale. We work very closely with our clients’ team to understand how best to meet their needs, utilizing the diverse talent within our team to create highly innovative marketing campaigns.