Why Monitor the Dark Web?
The dark web hosts marketplaces where stolen credentials, data dumps, exploits, and access to compromised systems are traded. Monitoring these forums and marketplaces provides early warning when your organization's data appears in criminal channels.
What to Monitor
Credential Dumps
- Employee email/password combinations from breaches
- Corporate VPN and SSO credentials
- Cloud service credentials
- Database connection strings
Data Leaks
- Intellectual property appearing on paste sites
- Customer data in breach databases
- Internal documents on file-sharing sites
- Source code in public repositories
Threat Actor Activity
- Mentions of your organization in hacking forums
- Auction of access to your systems
- Discussions of your technology stack vulnerabilities
- Planned attacks against your industry
Exploit Markets
- Zero-day exploits for software you use
- Custom malware targeting your sector
- Ransomware-as-a-Service platforms
Monitoring Approaches
Automated Monitoring
- Deploy dark web crawlers on Tor, I2P, and paste sites
- Set up alerts for organization name, domains, and key employee emails
- Monitor breach databases for credential matches
- Track threat actor forums for mentions
Intelligence Partnerships
- Subscribe to commercial dark web intelligence feeds
- Join sector-specific information sharing groups
- Engage law enforcement for active threat notifications
- Participate in takedown operations when possible
When You Find Your Data
Credential Exposure
- Force password reset for affected accounts
- Verify MFA is enabled
- Check for unauthorized access in logs
- Monitor for credential stuffing attacks
Data Exposure
- Assess the scope and sensitivity of leaked data
- Determine regulatory notification requirements
- Engage legal counsel
- Prepare stakeholder communications
SuperClue Dark Web Module
SuperClue does not crawl dark web marketplaces or paste sites. Its 6 dark-web modules check breach databases through HaveIBeenPwned for exposed accounts on your domain and search certificate transparency logs (crt.sh) for certificates issued for your domain.