The dark web is proving to be a serious menace for organizations and the threats keep on piling up with the huge amount of data dumped on it on a regular basis.
What’s going on?
Between January and October 2020, over 22 billion records were spotted exposed online across the globe. Before the pandemic struck the world, 60% of the information on the dark web was already capable of destroying businesses. Now, the numbers are rising owing to the record number of breaches in 2020, and the activity in the dark web has climbed by 300% in the last three years, making both the buying and selling markets bigger than ever before.
Incidents you need to know about
- The Leon Medical Centers in Miami and Nocona General Hospital in Texas were hit by ransomware attacks, in which the hackers stole and compromised thousands of medical records. The documents were then uploaded on the dark web for attackers to extort victims.
- Over 16,000 card details, addresses, and private messages of customers of Foxtons Group were allegedly found on the dark web. Although a small number of data was uploaded, the number of affected customers is unknown.
Dark dynamics
- An analysis of the top 10 active dark web forums has revealed that most people are looking for hackers and the main motive behind 70% of the ads is to gain access to web resources.
- There has been a rise in interest in website hacking since March 2020 because of the rise in the number of companies available on the internet.
- Around 21% of all ads accounted for inquiries about gaining client or user databases from a targeted resource.
- In 4% of the ads, the primary goal of the hackers was to inject malicious programs into a website for the purpose of placing web skimmers or executing watering hole attacks.
The bottom line
The dark web is a pandora’s box when it comes to conducting illegal activities. It’s like Gotham City where bad things happen to businesses and people alike. The amount of data and services available on the dark web grows every day and it has become a hotbed for illegal activities of the worst kind.
Source: https://cyware.com/news/dark-web-forums-have-become-a-picnic-spot-for-hackers-a72148c5
