Understanding the Dark Web
The Dark Web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets. To access the Dark Web, you need specific software, configurations, or authorization to access.
To understand it further, let’s look at the different elements of the Worldwide Web and its language.
> The Surface Web is content on the World Wide Web that is available to the public and indexed by major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. This can also be referred to as the Public Web.
> The Deep Web is the part of the World Wide Web that is not discoverable by means of standard search engines, including password-protected or dynamic pages and encrypted networks.
> The Dark Web is a hidden network of websites and requires a specialised browser to access. The dark web is comprised of a reorganised network of internet sites that try to make users as anonymous as possible.They do this by routing communications through multiple servers, allowing them to mask their IP addresses and encrypting at every step.
Typical Use Cases for Dark Web Investigations
There are many reasons why clients turn to us for help including:
> Due diligence and background checks about individuals or companies
> Check if an individual or organisation has distributed any materials on Dark Web
> Evidence identification, access, and preservation
What Information Can Be Found on the Dark Web?
The majority of internet users do not have the know-how to use the Dark Web, which is often portrayed in TV and films as being a network used solely by criminals. However, this is not the case. Many users are simply diligent and curious individuals who want to gain as much information as possible about individuals or companies they may have interactions with.
As well as being a useful tool to gain information on businesses or individuals we may be investigating, we also utilise the dark web as part of our due diligence checks before business relationships are formed. Knowing whether a company has been exploited on the Dark Web can be an important aspect of a business check.
If an organisations network has been breached, sensitive information such as customer details, banking information or business content can be used to exploit the company and can pose issues with consumer confidence in future. Distribution of such material can result in significant financial or reputational damage and for this reason, it is important to know if a company has had any information leakage on the Dark Web.
For more information on Dark Web monitoring, investigation services, and software offered by Global Investigations, please contact us on 0208 287 7770 to speak to a member of our trained team.
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