Passwords and sign-ins
What dark web monitoring actually does
“Dark web” sounds dramatic. Monitoring it is a practical early warning that a password or account has leaked.
1 min readExplainer
The short version
Dark web monitoring watches for your company's email addresses and passwords in leaked data, so you can act before attackers do.
What the dark web is
The dark web is a part of the internet that needs special software to reach and is often used anonymously. Among other things, it hosts markets and forums where stolen data is bought, sold and shared, including lists of email addresses and passwords taken from breached websites.
What monitoring does
A monitoring service continuously checks these sources, and other places leaked data turns up, for your company’s email domain. When it finds a match, it alerts you with what was found and where it likely came from.
That lets you:
- Change exposed passwords before they are tried against your systems.
- Spot reuse, when a work email was used to sign up for an outside site that was breached.
- Notice a breach at a vendor or service your staff use.
What it does not do
It cannot remove data from the dark web, and it cannot see everything. It is an early warning, not a shield. The protection still comes from unique passwords, multi-factor authentication and acting on the alerts.
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