NEW YORK, March 18, 2021 (PRNewswire).  Cobwebs Technologies announced today that several enterprises have deployed its AI-powered WEBINT platform for dark web monitoring to gain insight into emerging threats, or clues to breaches or attacks already in progress, aimed at them.

Sites and content on the dark web reside on overlay networks (darknet) that require specialized web browsers for access. The dark web is known as a place where stolen information from data breaches is sold and bought, paid for with cryptocurrency. Functioning as a black market, all kinds of illicit and stolen goods and services are for sale, including malware, ransomware, hacker toolkits, financial info, and personally identifiable information (PII) related to fraud. For threat actors, who know how to get on the dark web, the dark web is a way to interact online while remaining anonymous.

Stolen personal and corporate information, data breach leaks, and ransomware demands are major concerns for enterprises. The fallout can result in fines under privacy and data protection regulations, interruption of business operations, and brand damage. On dark web forums, threat actors can discuss topics that relate to ransomware, including breaches, cryptocurrencies, and extortion, while remaining anonymous.

“In contrast to threat actors, it is very difficult for analysts and investigators to access the dark web, since it requires a special browser. Even if they would know how to access the dark web, exploring it to e.g., investigate criminal activities, requires a dark web search engine. Furthermore, by accessing the dark web themselves, analysts and investigators could be vulnerable to the scrutiny of threat actors related to the investigation. Our WEBINT solution is able to detect, collect, and analyze OSINT data from the surface, deep, and dark web, including threats, aimed at or related to an enterprise,” stated Shay Attias, Co-Founder & CTO of Cobwebs Technologies. “With our solution, an enterprise can monitor the dark web-based on specific search terms or phrases without the need for its staff to access the dark web using a dark web browser to visit dark web websites, forums, and social networks. The AI-based dark web monitoring technology connects the dots in a visual graph and gives actionable insights in the form of automated reports that can be used for follow up by the enterprise itself and for law enforcement to take action.”

In general, dark web monitoring tools help investigators and analysts to identify threat actors, follow the cryptocurrency money trail, map connections between threat actors, their affiliates, and group members to solve and prevent crimes such as cyber threats. Dark web monitoring tools are also useful for detecting and preventing insider threats. Such dark web monitoring software can scan for direct mentions of a specific organization or specific assets that could indicate either being targeted or a potential breach. The dark web monitoring services also allow investigators to launch a cybercrime investigation with any small piece of digital forensics information, such as a threat actor’s name, location, IP address, or image.