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The Necessity of Dark Web Monitoring

September 16, 2019 by securewebsite

Protect your identity and business with a consistent watchdog service

We’ve all read about the constant barrage of cyberattacks on businesses and the nightmare that comes from having your personal identity stolen. There are ways to reduce the odds that your business will suffer such an attack or that your personal information will be hacked. One of the best methods for protecting both your business and your identity as well as that of your family is consistent monitoring of the Dark Web.

What Is the Dark Web?

The Dark Web is just what it sounds like. It’s the shady side of the internet. The Dark Web lays in a sub layer of the internet known at the “Deep Web.” This is a place hidden from conventional search engines where criminals often roam searching for their next victim.

Believe it or not, common search engines including Google, Bing, and Yahoo simply scratch the surface of what is actually available online. Such search engines hunt just .04 percent of the indexed internet. The other 99.96 percent of the web consists of databases, private academic and government networks, and the Dark Web, according to ID Agent, which provides comprehensive threat intelligence and identity monitoring solutions for both individuals and businesses through ORAM Corporate Advisors.

What Threat Does the Dark Web Pose?

Not only is the Dark Web a place that threatens your personal identity but it can endanger your business as well. This is a place where the signature pieces of your personal identity (name, date of birth, stolen passwords, and even social security numbers) can be sold daily to the highest bidder. Everything from your credentials such as email logins, passwords, and usernames can be found there.

With such personal information, criminals can hack your email, your bank accounts, and more. They can open new credit card accounts in your name without your knowledge and rack up untold sums of debt before you’re even aware there’s a problem. The threat of personal identity theft can extend beyond you as well to other family members such as your spouse, your children, and your parents.

The loss of such personal information can be devastating to your business, too. Critical business information such as business applications, email, and other online services can be penetrated with your personal information. Logins and passwords can be changed, business information can be accessed and stolen, and your organization can be brought to a complete halt with the personally identifiable information (PII) bad actors are hocking on the Dark Web. Read the ORAM blog “The Dark Web: What It Is, How It Impacts Your Organization, and Ways to Protect Your Business” for more detailed information about the severity of the threat your business faces as a result of the Dark Web.

Protecting Yourself, Your Family, and Your Business

The most effective way of protecting your PII, your family members’ PII, and your business is through Dark Web monitoring. ORAM uses SpotLight ID, which employs Dark Web ID, to monitor your identity and that of your covered family members. Through leveraging Dark Web ID, ORAM focuses on the cyber threats specific to you and the environment you work in. Our proprietary software continuously monitors the Dark Web and the digital criminal underground to determine if our clients’ credentials have been exposed.

With SpotLight ID, ORAM searches for your personal information on the Dark Web. If found, your data is harvested to protect it from typical hacker sites such as Pastebin. Many such sites frequented by cybercriminals require a membership and credibility to enter. Our monitoring system allows us access to search more than 500 internet relay chatroom (IRC) channels, 600,000 private websites, and 600 Twitter feeds utilized by bad actors.

Furthermore, SpotLight ID executes 10,000 queries daily to help monitor and protect your identity and those of the people you love. We also monitor and source information from hidden theft forums, peer-to-peer file sharing programs and networks, and social media. We can even find compromised data harvested through botnets and command and control (C2) servers.

Be On Alert

If your information is identified on the Dark Web, we notify you immediately. This allows you the opportunity to change your logins and passwords before cybercriminals can take advantage of the information they have. This also gives you time to consult with your business’s internal or external IT team as soon as possible to determine if a data breach or cyber incident has occurred using your credentials. Such monitoring and notification can buy your business the time it needs to change your username, login, and password before cybercriminals can strike against it.

In addition to monitoring the Dark Web for your PII, ORAM will alert you if someone actively targets you or your covered family members’ social media profiles. You’ll also receive instant updates, alerts, and access to your credit from all three major credit bureaus if something changes with your credit or that of your covered family members.

Monitoring of the Dark Web also gives you peace of mind that your identity and that of family is covered. With a team of U.S.-based Certified Identity Restoration Specialists, ORAM will work to completely restore your identity should the worst happen, even if the issue began before you enrolled for coverage. You can take even more comfort in knowing that with SpotLight ID, you have up to $1 million in identity insurance to cover related restoration expenses if needed.

If you are interested in learning more about SpotLight ID or registering in one of our affordable and flexible plans, contact ORAM Corporate Advisors online now or call us at (617) 933-5060. The cybersecurity experts at ORAM are here to protect you, your family, and your business from the threat of cybercrime.

The Dark Web: What it is, how it impacts your organization, and ways to protect your business

October 19, 2018 by securewebsite

The Dark Web sounds like the name of Hollywood’s latest horror movie. In reality, it is something much scarier. It can rob your business, negatively impact employees, and shutter companies.
While you can’t see it, the Dark Web is a huge threat to the stability and continuity of business. Knowing what it is and why it is threatening is the first step to protecting what you have built with hard work and dedication. Here is what you need to know about the Dark Web, why it’s so dangerous, and ways to best protect your organization.

What is the Dark Web?
The Dark Web is the shady side of the World Wide Web. Digital communities on the Dark Web are accessible with special software that allows users and those operating dark websites to remain anonymous and untraceable. While it offers some legitimate uses, it is estimated that more than 50 percent of all sites on the Dark Web are employed in criminal activities. This can mean everything from the theft of digital credentials to their disclosure through sale.

Your Credentials
Digital credentials such as usernames and passwords keep you and your employees connected to critical business applications, email, and other online services. Criminals know that if they can get those credentials, they can access everything from your business’s list of clients to your trade secrets and funds. This means digital credentials are some of the most valuable pieces of information floating around the Dark Web.

Credential Theft
Criminals steal credentials from login information for social media platforms such as Facebook to dates of birth and credit card numbers. The problem is that many individuals and companies often fail to realize their credentials have been stolen until it’s too late.

In more than 75 percent of cases, it is law enforcement or another third-party that notifies a victim that something is amiss. By then, it’s usually too late to prevent data theft or a serious breach that could stop your company in its tracks, lead to a loss of customers, or even bankrupt your business.

Human Resources and Payroll
Your business relies on its human resources and payroll department(s) but these valuable individuals are some of the biggest risks to your organization’s digital security. When they utilize their work email to access websites and programs such as ADP, Paychex, and Ceridian, it can open the door for criminals who have stolen their credentials.

Cybercriminals can use their stolen information to heist the personally identifiable information (PII) of other employees, access payroll information, and even steal from the company coffers. Such breaches can also lead to other criminal activity such as the identity theft of employees or customers.

Client Relations Management
The client relations management (CRM) tool your business uses allows you to communicate seamlessly with your customers. This is great for your business and it’s great for cybercriminals, too.
Pretend for a moment that you have used the same password for your eBay account as you do for your business’s HubSpot. If a hacker steals your eBay credentials, they can access your business’s HubSpot. They can now send an email to your clients pretending to be you. The hacker can ask your clients for anything they want from money to their PII. This can ruin your name and reputation with your clients and within your industry as well as that of your company.

Communications
Another risk lays in your company’s communications from Verizon to Adobe and T-Mobile. For example, if someone wants to hack your AT&T account, they may be able to reveal your payment information from a bank account or credit card. Now they have access to your accounts and can steal money from you and/or your business. Using your mobile number, they can also spoof text messages, reset your bank account password, and access your cash as well as other websites, social media platforms, and other apps you utilize.

Business tools such as email services can also become hacked with the theft of employee credentials. Whether your company uses Gmail, Yahoo, or Office365, these are all hackable. Once someone has access, they can send spoofed emails to clients pretending to be you or an employee asking for more information or even money.

Collaboration
While collaboration among employees, contractors, and vendors is typically considered a positive attribute in business, it can also put your organization at risk. Many individuals and businesses today use Dropbox as a great method of file sharing and collaboration. Such files often contain a plethora of valuable information including trade secrets, PII, and client data. A hacker can use this information to spoof emails, gather data from clients, and target them as their next victims.

Travel Services
If your business employs a travel service to help them get from point A to point B, this can be another security risk. Companies such as Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz typically store your credit card information along with other PII that can be devastating in the event they are breached.

Be sure to employ different login credentials for each of these websites to best protect yourself and your business. Use multi-factor authentication if it is offered and don’t store your billing information with these sites if given this as an option.

E-Commerce
Whether your company orders office supplies online from Staples/Office Depot or your business sells products through Amazon/eBay, this is yet another area of risk. Again, stolen credentials can allow for the theft of PII and access to financial information that can drain your bank account before you realize what has happened.

Banking & Finance
Programs such as QuickBooks or Freshdesk or banking apps from financial organizations such as Bank of America or Wells Fargo can also lead to problems when it comes to credentials. If a hacker steals access to your bank accounts, credit cards, or financial programs, it can be truly devastating for your business.

Imagine having all of your accounts wiped out. How will you pay your employees, cover your business mortgage, or pay out contractors? Once the money is gone, the likelihood you will ever see it again is minimal, as hackers can be very difficult to trace and, even if you do get it back, how will you cover your business expenses in the meantime?

Social Media
If your employees or business are on social media, which most are, this can put your business at higher risk for a breach. Pages on social media can be easily spoofed or copied. A cybercriminal can invite your friends and followers, steal their information, and worse. This can ruin your reputation whether the hacker takes an unpopular political stand on the false page or accesses more people to victimize through spoofing of their personal or business pages.

Other Employee Risks
In addition to the threat of employees having their work credentials stolen, their personal credentials can also put your business at risk if they end up in the wrong hands. For example, if an employee uses their LinkedIn credentials such as their username and password for work in QuickBooks, they can expose your company to a breach. Employees should be trained to use unique usernames and passwords for each program, app, and website they use. This is true not just for work but also for their private internet use as well.

While it can be cumbersome to keep track of different usernames and passwords for each website or app they use, there are password management tools such as MyGlue or LastPass that can keep track of them all. While some of these password management programs are free, some do have a minimal cost associated with them. Remember, you get what you pay for in business. Some of the free apps are poorly encrypted locally on your own device so if you get hacked, the bad guys will still have access to your information. We advise working with a larger company so you know they have the manpower and ability to keep your information safe and secure.

Users often have the same password for multiple services such as network logons, social media, and online stores. This greatly increases the potential for a breach. Train and retrain your employees on cybersecurity. It is worth the investment as is paying a small annual fee for a secure password management tool. Consider this well spent money as an operating expense just as you do with your marketing budget.

Combating the Dark Web
At Oram, our experts are able to search the Dark Web so you don’t have to. Using Dark Web ID from ID Agent, our experts search for your personally identifiable Information (PII) on the Dark Web to determine if you are at risk of experiencing a breach. This gives you time to protect your information, notify your bank or lender, and change passwords before you experience a breach.

How Dark Web ID Works
Dark Web ID is a commercial solution to detecting compromised credentials in real time on the Dark Web. It offers the same advanced credential monitoring capabilities that are employed by Fortune 500 companies. This specially designed software connects to multiple Dark Web services including Tor, I2P, and Freenet where it searches for compromised credentials. With this proprietary software, you don’t have to expose your own software, hardware, or network to these high-risk services directly.

By searching the most secretive and covert corners of the internet, Dark Web ID locates compromised credentials associated with your business, contractors, and personnel. If we find credentials that compromise your company, we notify you immediately BEFORE you become the victim of identity theft, data loss, or a breach. The real-time awareness of compromised credentials Dark Web ID provides means you will know if your PII has been stolen so you can safeguard both your personal and business assets before it’s too late.

Be Prepared
The more information you have, the more valuable it is and the more prepared you can be. We employ extensive logging and reporting capabilities that allow us to track your credentials and the credentials of your employees on the Dark Web. As a result, we can triage incidents quickly and create effective policies and procedures to reduce the risk to your business.

How It Helps Businesses
We use the Dark Web ID as a tool to identify compromises throughout your organization that could put your company at risk for a data loss or major breach. With this software, we are able to monitor the Dark Web 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It is so effective, it reports more than 80,000 compromised emails daily. In addition to email, the program searches and monitors the following platforms frequented by cybercriminals:

• Hidden chat rooms
• Private websites
• Peer-to-peer networks
• Internet relay chat (IRC) channels
• Social media platforms
• Black market sites
• 640,000+ botnets

Predictable Patterns
While it is good practice to be prepared for a breach, it’s even better to have a warning that one could be coming. Using Dark Web ID, we can identify industry patterns. If we see that your industry is starting to come under attack, we can share that intelligence with you to best protect your employees, your business, and your consultants.

Prevention is the Best Medicine
While a network attack may be inevitable, they can be made less destructive and costly. With proactive monitoring of stolen and compromised credentials, you can be alerted to prevent losses before they happen. With alerts that tell you when your credentials have been stolen, you can respond immediately to prevent a breach.

By employing monitoring services and software such as Dark Web ID, your company can move toward compliance with data breach and privacy laws. Our experts can even help you develop and implement a data breach response plan.

If you would like more information about the Dark Web, Dark Web ID, or reducing cyber risks to your business, please call Oram today at (617) 933-5060 or visit us online.

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month

October 9, 2018 by securewebsite

A look at cyber awareness and tips for protecting yourself online

Whether you are turning on the television, checking the daily newsfeed online, or reading a magazine, you’re sure to hear about the breach of a major business such as Yahoo, a data leak by the government, or hackers attacking a local school. Over the last two decades, cybersecurity has been legislated to protect consumers, businesses, and the government alike. There’s a need for greater awareness of cyber security and how people can best protect themselves and their businesses. That is the purpose behind National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) which has been celebrated every October for the last 15 years.

The History of NCSAM
Developed as a collaborative effort between industry and the U.S. government, the purpose of NCSAM is to ensure every American has the necessary resources to stay safer and more secure online as well as advance awareness of the threats we all face when we log on. Launched in 2003, NCSAM was conceived by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance.

According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, the goal was to reach as many people and businesses as possible to educate them about cybersecurity. The target audience consists of consumers, small and medium-sized business, corporations, educational institutions and young people across the country.

STOP. THINK. CONNECT.
This year marks the 8^th anniversary of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ campaign used during NCSAM which offers tips and advice for everyone from the daily internet user to business owners.

The message to consumers of every age is clear. We are all warned to stop and think before connecting which means doing things to protect ourselves before we get online. We are warned to “Keep a Clean Machine,” “Protect Your Personal Information,” and “Connect with Care.” But what does all of this really mean?

Keep a Clean Machine
All of your internet-connected devices should be kept free of malware and other infections such as viruses as they can interrupt your connectivity at home and at work as well as spread to others. A dirty machine can also threaten your safety and the safety of others online. This is especially true when it comes to malware that connects your devices to botnets, which are networks of computers controlled by cybercriminals that can steal your information and make money from it.

There are several things you can do to keep a clean machine including:

Use the Latest Software– Ensure you have the newest security software, web browser and operating systems to offer the best defense against known viruses, malware, and other threats.
Automate Updates– Most software programs automatically update to defend against threats. Keep auto updates turned on and turn your computer off each night so updates will occur when you reboot.
Protect Every Device– In addition to computers, be sure to turn on auto updates for all devices including smartphones, laptops, and tablets.
Plug & Scan– External devices such as USBs can harbor viruses and malware. Use security to scan them before using.
Get Rid of Garbage– Delete links, emails, tweets, posts, etc. that look suspicious. These are ways cybercriminals compromise your computer. If it’s not from a trusted source, trash it. Don’t open it.
Hot Spot Smarts– Limit the business you conduct when away from your home or office. Be sure to adjust the security settings on your device to limit who can access it.
Act Fast– If you think your machine is infected, get help fast to remove viruses and malware before they can spread or cause more damage.

Protect Your Personal Information
Each one of us has the responsibility of protecting our personally identifiable information (PII) online. If your personal information ends up in the wrong hands, there could be serious consequences from a breach in your social media or theft from your business to your identity being stolen and your bank account being wiped out.

While you may have worked hard to protect that information, all of us must still assume our personal information has been leaked because hacks happen all of the time. Here are some tips for protecting your PII online from the New York Times:

Use Different Passwords– Across multiple sites from Facebook to your bank account, NEVER use the same password in more than one place. Doing this allows a hacker that gets your password in one place to use it in another. Password managers such as 1Password or LastPass can help you keep track of them all.
Never Your Social- Never use your social security number as a username or password. This is especially true in the face of the recent Equifax breach.
Be Suspicious- Treat everything online with an abundance of suspicion. Hackers send emails, notices, letters, etc. posing as people you know and businesses you solicit to gain information. Contact a business or individual requesting PII online by calling them directly before deleting the email as they may need it to press charges or stop the cybercriminal from targeting others.
Use Stronger Passwords- Sites such as LastPass can help you create unique passwords for each site you visit and save them for you in a protected database. If you create your own, be sure to use uppercase and lowercase letters, numerals, and special characters in each password.
Employ Extra Security- Passwords are not enough. If a site allows you to use secondary or two-factor authentication, enable those features. When you enter your password, you will receive a message with a one-time login code to allow you to finish logging in.

Connect with Care
Many web users are very quick to click whether it be on an email, a link, or an attachment. Slow down and take time to examine what it is you are about to click before you do so. Ensure you know who an email is from before opening it. If you don’t know the sender or aren’t expecting an email, delete it without opening it.

If you receive an email from a person or business you know and the email address looks familiar, feel free to open it. Once open, look at the email itself. Does it sound like it’s from the sender or does it seem odd? If the English is suddenly broken, the business logo is not right or is missing, or something else is off about the email, do not click on any links or attachments. Contact the person or business directly to see if they have sent you something via email.

Use care when connecting to public Wi-Fi. This is especially true if you are conducting business such as banking or shopping online. Use only trusted secure connections when using portable devices outside of the home or office.

Be Web Wise
Personal information about anyone is now easy to find online. This is especially true with the advent and use of social media. That means we all have to be wise when it comes to using the web. The first thing you should know is how your information gets online. Here are some ways you may inadvertently be sharing your personal information:

Posting on social media
“Checking in” through social location sites such as Foursquare
Commenting on blogs or shopping sites
Creating online wish lists online at sites like Amazon or Pinterest
Sharing videos or photos online
Using online games
Giving location data when uploading photos online

If you are on social media, check to see if you can change your privacy settings to limit what others can see about you or who has access to your information. Be sure to read the privacy policy of any company before sharing your information with them to ensure they don’t sell it to third parties. You’ll also want to ensure that your data is backed up at home and at the office in the event of ransomware, other cyber attacks, or even a computer shutdown.

Be a Good Online Citizen
Being a good online citizen involves employing the Golden Rule of treating others online the way you would like to be treated and using common sense. Don’t visit unsecured sites and don’t forward emails from unknown sources to others.

Be aware of how the action of one person can damage an entire online community. For example, one employee surfing unsecured sites through your business network can open the door for malware, viruses, and cybercriminals. Have common expectations in your home and office about what is an acceptable use of the network and what types of sites should be avoided.

Report cybercrime and breaches immediately. These should be reported not only to your internal technology personnel but to law enforcement as well. By reporting such issues, you are helping others avoid becoming victims, too, and stopping cybercriminals in their tracks.

Own Your Online Presence
This means safeguarding your own personal information and activity. For example, data should be treated like money. It should be protected. This means everything from your birthdate and personal address to the names of your children and pets which are often used as passwords. It can be easy for a hacker to get into your accounts with such personal information floating around on the web.

Be careful about who you share information with. For example, you may get “friend” requests from people you don’t know on social media. Simply delete the request. This is not being rude, it’s being prudent. Also, don’t send login information via email. Email can easily be hacked without the proper, updated security in place. If you get a request for information from a business online, call them to see if the request was really from them and provide any data they may need that way.

Lock Down Your Login
One of the main points of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ campaign is to Lock Down Your Login. There are several ways you can ensure your login information stays secure. Here are six tips to get you there:

Protect accounts with strong authentication
Keep security software updated
Avoid phishing by thinking before clicking
Use unique passwords for every site
Protect your mobile devices
Employ trusted security tools

Our Responsibility
Staying safe online and protecting those we are connected with is everyone’s responsibility. Because the world has become so digital, we are more interconnected than ever before. From our desktops to our tablets, phones to laptops, we find ourselves working, playing, learning, and living online. That means all of us has a responsibility to try to stay as safe as possible by adhering to the advice of cyber experts.

National Cyber Security Awareness Month is a chance for us all to become more aware of the threats we face online and ways to protect ourselves and others. For more information, safety tips, and ways to get involved in NCSAM, visit the National Cyber Security Alliance online or contact Oram at (617) 933-5060.