CEO Today Magazine January 2019 Edition

www.ceotodaymagazine.com 28 special feature When your company’s computer systems are hacked, the chances are that some of the stolen data will end up for sale on the dark web. No business, large or small, can afford to look away. The dark web has multiple identities. Parts of this vast information and communications universe are relatively benign. Some inhabitants might want nothing more than an anonymous place to express their political ideals, access banned media, meet like-minded people and generally explore their identities. But the dark web also hosts a criminal underworld where people in closely guarded back rooms trade in illegal goods and services – weapons, drugs, illicit content and stolen information such as intellectual property, IP addresses, credit card details and passwords. The highly publicised Ashley Madison data breach offers a sobering example of what can happen to a business and its customers when sensitive data is exposed and exploited, yet business leaders often know little about the dark web. They don’t know if their data has been posted on this huge bunch of unindexed websites and they don’t want to know because they think there’s nothing they can do about it. Start with the misconception that once sensitive data has left the building it’s ‘game over’ and CEOs risk missing an opportunity to limit damage from information that has been stolen but hasn’t yet been sold. Start with an awareness of how the dark web works and the tools available to penetrate its deepest recesses and incident management takes on a focused, more targeted edge. Think of the dark web as a marketplace. Thieves might sell your company data straight to a trusted contact or post titbits of information to lure prospective buyers. They might divide it into smaller packages or sell it as a job lot to the C-Suite Beware: The Dangers of the Dark Web Phil Chambers, Chief Operating Officer Metro Communications

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